Strangers
by Stars of Gold
Summary: AU They say Strangers are evil, dangerous, and that Strangers will kill you just for the sake of killing you. But... are they really the savage ones? Or... are humans to blame? Main pairs: Perfect Golden Emerald Adorable Silver Dirty AkuDan NaNoWriMo 2010
1. Chapter 1

They say that mutants, dubbed Strangers, are the most dangerous of beings on this earth. They are cruel, primal creatures that prey on the weak and helpless. They need no reason to kill; they kill simply because they wish to, because their prey is smaller, because they feel the need to establish to the world that they are superior.

Strangers are dangerous, but thankfully, every one of them has been driven into hiding. The younger generations believe that Strangers are little more than a myth, nowadays; they haven't seen any Strangers in their lifetime. The older ones know that there was a time when Strangers prowled through the streets, wild and hungry for blood.

Only a handful of people believe that modern day Strangers are peaceful and non-violent, unlike their ancestors. Unfortunately, the majority of the population, at least in Japan, sees Strangers to be feral and deadly.

Strangers are different. They have powers normal humans can only dream up. They are different, weird, _strange_, and so they are wrong. They must be eliminated. The sooner the better.

Humans are destructive. This is a truth that every Stranger, regardless of age, knows. Sometime's a Stranger's family would turn on him, shunning him and forcing him out of the house the moment his powers were revealed. This has happened to far too many Strangers, and they had no home until the Stranger Council came up with the idea to establish several Houses, in which children and teenage Strangers would be, well, housed. They would be taken care of by a house leader, usually an older Stranger without children of their own.

Every House had a maximum capacity of fifteen at a time, eighteen if they packed themselves together like sardines. Despite this, each teen House had about eight Strangers and one mentor, though the children Houses were more crowded.

But, of course, I digress.

Strangers are dangerous, they say.

Well, Strangers say that _they_ are a bunch of imbeciles. Strangers are only dangerous because the humans make them dangerous. The humans forced the Strangers into hiding, kill Stranger's families, heartlessly throw children who barely understand what is going on out onto the streets to survive for themselves. Is it really such a wonder that some of us –some, mind you, not all– hate humans to our very core? Is it unimaginable, the reason we want to kill humans?

One day, one fine day, Strangers will prove their worth. Strangers will save mankind, or at least Japan.

Trust me. I have foresight.


	2. Chapter 2

Kunimitsu was sleeping when a loud crash and a shrill wail roused him from sleep.

"That was Eiji, I think," murmured Syuusuke, his bed companion, snuggling back into Kunimitsu's warm embrace.

"Sleep," grunted Kunimitsu articulately, blearily peering at the clock on the bedside table. It was only 7 in the morning, and Kunimitsu had had far too little sleep last night, thanks to Syuusuke and his goddamned kinky games.

"Good idea, Mitsu," agreed Syuusuke sleepily, and Kunimitsu hugged Syuusuke tighter to his chest like a bolster. It was Kunimitsu's idea of peace, this kind of morning, and he was just about to fall asleep with a contented smile on his face...

...when a second crash sounded, much closer to the door this time, accompanied by footsteps. "Get back here, Eiji-san!" yelled Momoshiro, his voice slightly muffled thanks to the door. "This is for your own good!"

"No!" Eiji wailed back. "I don't want to take a bath, nya! No! You can't force me!"

More cracking and breaking, and what sounded like the shattering of an expensive vase.

"I think that was the vase Atobe gave me for my birthday," commented Kunimitsu. "The porcelain one with the cranes and cherry blossoms."

"Yes, I remember," said Syuusuke. "I certainly hope so. It was very gaudy."

"It was from Atobe," said Kunimitsu as if that explained everything. Syuusuke laughed lightly. "Maa, I guess you have a point. What do cranes have to do with cherry blossoms, anyway?"

Kunimitsu opened his mouth to answer, but there was yet another loud wail and a slightly disturbing and painful-sounding thump. "I suppose we should get up and end it," said Syuusuke in a sigh.

Kunimitsu nodded, but neither of them moved. The two just lay there in bed, listening to the sounds of chaos being wreaked outside their room.

Then, all of a sudden, the sounds stopped.

Kunimitsu tensed and Syuusuke's eyes flew open.

"An attack?" whispered Syuusuke. Kunimitsu shook his head. "There would have been sounds of a struggle if it was an attack," he reasoned. "But... we should check it out in case. Let's go without letting our guard down."

Syuusuke nodded and sat up. "I'll take point."

Which was for the best, Kunimitsu told himself. Syuusuke could immobilize any intruder with a single glance; it was more logical that he take point despite Kunimitsu's natural urge to go first in an attempt to protect his lover. Syuusuke was the most important to Kunimitsu now that his family had been vaporized for protecting a Stranger. Of course, officially, they were killed on the charge of assisting a mass murder of twenty-four, but Kunimitsu had been there and he knew the truth.

Syuusuke slipped out of the room noiselessly and padded down the hallway. Kunimitsu followed carefully; he wasn't nearly as graceful nor as small as Syuusuke, and as such was more prone to banging into things.

Syuusuke tapped his ear lightly and nodded to the bathroom. _I hear something from the bathroom,_ was his message, and Kunimitsu could hear it loud and clear. Kunimitsu nodded in reply and followed Syuusuke to the small room, tensing in preparation for battle.

Syuusuke opened the door with gusto and stopped short at the sight he saw. Kunimitsu, looking over his shoulder, would have gaped if he were less dignified.

Kikumaru Eiji, water-hating pink feline of Seigaku House, was sitting in the bathtub, purring in contentment. Oishi, the newest member of Seigaku House who had come to them a mere three weeks ago, had been washing the pink cat when Kunimitsu and Syuusuke barged in.

"Oh, ohayo, Tezuka-kun, Fuji-kun," greeted Oishi cheerfully. "I made some pancakes earlier for breakfast. Feel free to go on ahead and eat them without us. Eiji and I will be down after his bath." Oishi scratched behind Kikumaru's ears, and the pink cat purred loudly.

"Oishi-sempai," said Syuusuke, bowing to him. "You are truly amazing."

Kunimitsu nodded in agreement. Oishi was like a mother, the House had come to discover, and apparently, just like some mothers, he had the ability to make the most stubborn child be good for him.

Oishi blinked. "E-Eh? _'Oishi-sempai'_...What was that for?"

Syuusuke laughed. "Eiji hates water. But you've managed to get him purring in a tub, and for that, you have my respect."

Oishi smiled and flushed in pleasure. "Thank you, Fuji-kun."

"You deserve it, Oishi-kun. Now, Mitsu, let's have some breakfast. I'm starving. Our games last night went on for too long. They drained my energy."

"They were all your ideas, Syuusuke," Kunimitsu reminded him as they proceeded to the staircase. "I barely got a say in anything."

"But you liked them, didn't you?"

Kunimitsu sniffed and didn't reply.

"We should have recruited Oishi-kun a long time ago," commented Fuji as he and Tezuka sat down at the breakfast table.

"I know, right?" agreed Momoshiro heartily through his mouthful of pancakes, spraying crumbs all over the table and barely missing Inui, who leaned back and turned a page in his notebook. "All he did was scratch Eiji-san!"

"Kikumaru likes Oishi-kun," noted Inui. "Oishi-kun also likes Kikumaru. They have a natural synchronization that allowed Oishi-kun to instinctively know how to get Kikumaru to obey him; not by force, but by persuasion." Inui adjusted his glasses and cut Momoshiro off before he could say anything.

"Momoshiro, despite his empathy, did not know this little trick. I theorize that this is because of Kikumaru's feline nature. Momoshiro's empathy is more wired towards humans and Strangers than animals."

Momoshiro chewed, thinking about it. "Yeah," he said finally. "I guess that's right."

Inui's glasses glinted. "I'm always right."

Kawamura came down the stairs. "Morning, guys," he greeted cheerfully. "Did you know that Eiji's actually willingly taking a bath?"

"Yes," the table replied in unison.

"I wanted to observe Oishi-kun's techniques in case something happened to him and one of us had to take over, but Kikumaru wouldn't let me. He said something about privacy." Inui frowned, not seeming to understand.

Everyone stared at Inui.

"Inui," Tezuka said finally. "It's an invasion of privacy to watch others bathing."

Inui shrugged. "It's nothing I've never seen before," he said coolly. "We're all men here."

"He's straight, Mitsu," Fuji reminded him. "Don't even bother. He won't get it."

"Ah," agreed Tezuka, placing a forkful of pancakes into his mouth.

"But Taka-san's straight and he gets it," Momoshiro argued, pointing at Kawamura with his knife. Kawamura slid into the seat next to Momoshiro and pushed the knife away. "It's dangerous to point knives in others' faces, Momo," he admonished.

"Sorry," said Momoshiro.

"Good morning, Echizen," called Fuji, spotting the younger boy trudging down the stairs and rubbing his eyes adorably. Echizen grunted in reply and dragged his feet all the way to the table, then plopped into the seat between Kawamura and Inui and let his head fall on the table with a loud thunk.

"Ah, adolescence," said Fuji teasingly. "I remember thee well."

"Syuusuke, you're seventeen."

"Hush, Mitsu."

"..."

To those who didn't know Tezuka well, they would have said that he was completely unaffected, but Fuji knew he was sulking. Fuji threaded his fingers through Tezuka's comfortingly and rubbed his thumb over his boyfriend's as a silent apology.

"Oi, Echizen!" called Momoshiro loudly, attempting and failing to reach over Kawamura to thump the younger boy on the back. "What's wrong?"

Echizen looked up to glare at Momoshiro, then swatted his hand away grumpily and settled his head back down on the table.

Inui adjusted his glasses and flipped open his notebook. "Echizen generally gets up 27 percent later in the morning. There is an 86 percent chance he was awoken thanks to the racket Momoshiro made while chasing Kikumaru, and a 63 percent chance that the giggles and purring of dubious nature from the bathroom bothered him so much he decided to come down instead of going back to sleep."

Echizen groaned something quite undecipherable grumpily. Kawamura translated, "Echizen says it's too early for numbers, Inui-kun." He paused and listened to another grumble. "Ah, he also says that he misses someone called Karupin."

This, of course, caught Momoshiro's attention. "Karupin? Who's Karupin? Is she your girlfriend? Is she cute?"

Fuji smiled dangerously. "Yes, do tell, Echizen. And, more importantly, does 'Karupin' know that you are a Stranger and the location at which you are currently residing? If she does, then, well," his eyes flew open, "we'll just have to _dispose_ of her, then..."

Echizen lifted his head and glared at them both. "Karupin," he said, grumpy yet cute, just like a disgruntled kitten, "is my _cat_."

Fuji's eyes closed and he turned back to his food in disinterest. Momoshiro made a face. "Aw," he whined. "She was just a cat? You can't trick me like that, Echizen, you just can't!"

Inui grinned evilly. "Why do you care so much about who Echizen dates, Momoshiro?" he asked suggestively.

Fuji chuckled. "Momoshiro, if you wanted to join our ranks, you should have said so," he said, his grin dangerous. "We'd have pre-ordered the toy set. And I mean the grown up sort of toy, not the kind you play with during childhood," he added mischievously, opening his eyes simply to throw a wink.

Kawamura coughed uncomfortably, Momoshiro was turning redder by the second, and Inui scribbled something down in his notebook.

"Syuusuke, don't give people heart attacks," said Tezuka mildly. "We went through a lot of trouble to rescue Momoshiro, and if he dies, all that effort will be wasted."

"Tezuka," said Kawamura in awe. "Did you just... crack a joke?"

"No, I never joke," said Tezuka with a straight face.

"That means yes, he did crack a joke," said Fuji, grinning teasingly.

"O-Oi! I'm not– I'm not a homo!" protested Momoshiro, finally able to speak through the mortification. "Not that there's anything wrong with that," he added quickly, eyeing Tezuka and Fuji sitting a little too close together on the other side of the table.

"It's just that I see it as my duty as one of the three straight guys in this house to make sure one of us isn't going to the dark side. Also, also, as Echizen's friend, I have to make sure he's not, you know, asexual, either," Momoshiro explained, nodding decisively.

"Three?" Fuji repeated, frowning. "But there are four of you: Kawamura, Inui, Echizen and you, Momoshiro."

Momoshiro blinked. "No, that's not right," he said, dismissing the statement with a wave. "Inui-san's not straight."

Inui adjusted his glasses. "I assure you I have never been attracted to anyone of my own gender," he said calmly.

"Ah, that may be, but you've never been attracted to anyone of the opposite gender, either, have you, Inui-san?" asked Momoshiro teasingly.

Inui didn't say anything.

Fuji grinned. "Since Momo said it, it must be true, ne? Welcome to the dark side, Inui," he said, clapping the taller boy on the shoulder. "We'll get you your toy set in approximately three months, or when you find a significant other. Whichever comes first."

Inui pushed his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose and refused to make any comment. Kawamura laughed awkwardly, Momoshiro cheered ("Kampai! Kampai!") and Tezuka simply sighed.

"Ya-hoi!" called Kikumaru as he bounded down the stairs and pounced onto Fuji's head, shapeshifting into a small cat as he did so. Oishi followed at a more sedated pace, watching with a fond smile as Fuji removed the small cat from his head and set him down on the chair beside Tezuka.

"Good morning, minna," greeted Oishi. "So what did we miss?"

"Inui's joined our ranks," chirped Fuji.

Oishi blinked. "Our... 'ranks'?" he asked, clearly confused.

"He is also homosexual," supplied Tezuka helpfully.

"Ah," said Oishi, smiling. "Well, okay."

"Uwaaa!" exclaimed Kikumaru, who had transformed back into his humanoid state. "Inui, you're like us?"

Suddenly, Echizen's head snapped up. "Ne," he said slowly. "Is it our turn to get strays this week?"

There was silence as everyone thought about it.

"Yes," said Kawamura finally. "Because last week St. Rudolph got Fuji's little brother."

Fuji glared at nothing in particular. "Goddamned Mizuki Hajime," he growled darkly. "I know he's molesting my precious, innocent little brother right now..."

"Syuusuke, focus," said Tezuka mildly, squeezing Fuji's hand in his. Then he turned to Echizen. "Where is he?"

Echizen made a face. "The newbie's in the park," he said, rising from his seat. "Let's go."


	3. Chapter 3

Wakashi awoke with a jolt. He could feel it so clearly, the tingling feeling of new, unfamiliar power crackling over his skin. A Stranger's powers had manifested, and it was time for one of the Houses to go retrieve him. "Oi, Haginosuke," he said, prodding the sleeping figure next to him. "Haginosuke. Is it our turn to get Strangers?"

Haginosuke was not a morning person. He had never been, and Wakashi, who had been roommates with Haginosuke for three years (though they'd had separate beds during the first year), knew this well. "Go to sleep, Wakashi," groaned Haginosuke, rolling over. "It's too early."

Sighing, Wakashi slipped out of bed, pulled on a shirt, then left the room quietly so as to not disturb the other occupants of the house who were less than pleasant in the mornings.

He quietly padded past the notice board, stopping only to snort as he read a new notice, titled The Ten Commandments of Hyoutei House, and pulled out a black gel pen to scribble a note beside number nine. Then he shook himself as the tingles on his skin strengthened slightly and jolted him, reminding him of his purpose of waking up early.

"Morning, Ohtori," he asked quietly as he stepped into the dining room with attached kitchen area. The tall, silver-haired boy, just as expected, was sitting at the table, sipping at a warm cup of what seemed to be coffee as he read a novel. Ohtori looked up at his name and smiled. "Good morning, Hiyoshi-kun!" he greeted just as quietly as Wakashi. They both knew that most people in the house were light-sleepers and also not morning people –a bad combination for sure.

"Ohtori, is it our turn to get new Strangers this week?" Wakashi asked as he ladled miso soup into a bowl from the pot on the stove. It was a tactic that, while untraditional, kept the soup warm before it was time to eat it. Wakashi had actually been the one to some up with the idea. He was pretty proud of himself. "And what are you drinking?"

"Hot chocolate," replied Ohtori, sipping from his cup again. "And no, it's Seigaku's turn this week because St. Rudolph went to get Fuji-san's little brother last week."

"You actually remember that?" Wakashi snorted, settling into a chair and sipping at his miso soup.

"Yes. Jirou-san wouldn't stop talking about it and how cool Fuji-san looked when he was angry," explained Ohtori, looked slightly exasperated. "I'm surprised you don't remember, what with the way he kept going on about it."

"I hung around Atobe," said Wakashi by way of explanation. Atobe was quite possessive, and every time he heard Jirou, ah, 'fanboying', as he called it, over another man, he got all pissy and dragged Jirou off to their room to, ah, claim his property. Over and over and over again. By the time it was over, at least three hours had passed and Jirou would be walking with a limp. That must mean that Atobe was–

No! Wakashi didn't want to think about it! It was so disgusting! Ew...

Ahem.

Ohtori nodded in comprehension, and they sat in silence, Ohtori drinking hot chocolate and reading his novel and Wakashi drinking his miso soup and trying to ignore the half ticklish and half painful feeling of power dancing over his skin.

* * *

When the rest of Hyoutei House awoke, breakfast, as usual, was eaten in relative uneventfulness. Nothing ever happened at the breakfast table; everyone was too sleepy to fight properly. Even Shishido and Gakuto, who could (and would) fight over just about anything in the world, barely muttered a word of protest to each other. The most interesting thing that had ever happened was Jirou falling asleep into his breakfast face-first, but eventually that occurrence became less of an event and more of a normality.

Ohtori and Hiyoshi always slipped away during the others' breakfast to take a shower, because there was always the scramble to the shower after breakfast. Everyone always wanted to have a turn before Atobe, because Atobe took a damn long time in the bathroom, 'making himself beautiful'.

(Taki, although just as bad as the silver-haired boy, also fought for the chance to shower before Atobe because Taki hated the way Atobe never bothered putting Taki's beauty products back in their proper places after clearing them away to make space for Atobe's own beauty products. Ohtori always put them right the next time he took a shower (and he was always the first to the shower thanks to a bit of good timing and luck), so Taki was never bothered if he showered before Atobe.)

Of course, Jirou had never had to deal with waiting for Atobe, because all he had to do was slip into the shower with Atobe, which he generally did when he wanted to piss his housemates off. If Jirou joined Atobe in the shower, they took about an hour longer than usual, and by then everyone was ready to kill them.

Yes. Jirou and Atobe never seemed to be able to keep their hands off of each other.

Hiyoshi had barely stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist when Shishido teleported into the bathroom with a small pop. "It's my turn!" he called for the sake of the others outside, then locked the door and cackled triumphantly.

"Oh, no, you don't!" yelled Gakuto, speeding down the hallway. "We had an agreement, Ryou; I was supposed to get the shower first today!"

"Well, too bad!" hollered Shishido, grinning gleefully. "You snooze, you lose, midget!"

Just then, Gakuto's head and arms phased through the door and pulled Shishido out.

"Hey!" cried Shishido when he was roughly released. "That's against the rules! You can't use your powers to drag someone out once they're in there!"

"Well, what you did was against the rules too," retorted Gakuto. "We had a deal, Ryou! All of us agreed to it!"

The two continued to bicker, and neither of them noticed Oshitari sighing and slipping into the bathroom until they caught sight of his long tail disappearing behind the door.

"Ah," Shishido and Gakuto chorused in surprise, pointing at the door. There was a short silence, then the situation truly sank in.

"Yuushi!" whined Gakuto.

"Oshitari, you bastard!" roared Shishido at the same time.

The only response was a click as the door locked shut.

"The bugger," swore Shishido, glaring at the door.

"He's so not getting any tonight," said Gakuto, also glaring at the door.

"I heard that, Gakuto!" called Oshitari from inside the bathroom. "And I promise you, that is not going to happen." Shishido could practically hear the smug and lecherous grin in his comment.

"Oh, no," replied Gakuto. "Not this time. This time, I am not going to give in. Just you wait, Oshitari Yuushi," he hissed viciously. "Just you _wait_."

The shower was turned on and both Shishido and Gakuto could hear Oshitari getting in.

"As dramatic as that speech is," drawled Oshitari in his sex phone operator voice Kansai accent, "I hope you realize, Gakuto, that you are welcome to join me at any time."

Gakuto's face lit up. "Really?" he asked, grinning and bouncing like a little boy on Christmas Eve. "Don't mind if I do, then!"

"I MIND!" yelled Shishido. "We all share that shower, and I so don't want to be bathing in you guys' sex grounds!"

"Like you've never had sex with Ohtori in the shower before," snorted Gakuto, crossing his arms. "I've seen it happen with my own eyes!"

"Why the hell were you watching us have sex in the shower?" demanded Shishido. "It was like the middle of the night!"

"I'm usually awake in the middle of the night, thanks to Yuushi's demon blood with an insatiable lust for pleasures of the flesh. Also, my powers, including x-ray vision, go slightly haywire during the third consecutive hour of sex," explained Gakuto.

"Why?" asked Shishido, blinking curiously.

"I don't know, actually," shrugged Gakuto.

"You still could have looked away, you voyeur!"

"Bitch!"

"Midget!"

"Drama queen!"

Oshitari once again interrupted their bickering by exiting the bathroom with a neutral, bored look on his face and wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. "Shower's free," he said coolly, dropping a hand on Gakuto's head as he passed.

Thansk to his boyfriend's shirtless status, Gakuto was understandably distracted. While it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when they'd first started dating three years ago, it was still enough for Gakuto to turn to admire the view for two seconds.

Thankfully, two seconds was all Shishido needed. He darted into the bathroom and quickly slammed the door shut, then immediately built a forcefield around it.

"Ryou, you bastard!" Shishido could hear Gakuto screaming outside.

"You can't get in, Gakuto!" cried Shishido gleefully. "I built a forcefield around the bathroom!"

"WHAT? When I get my hands on you, Ryou...!" Gakuto continued to scream obscenities at him. Shishido just grinned and stripped off his clothes. It felt good to have one up on the little redhead, really. The way Shishido saw it, everyone needed a little cutting down to size sometimes, just to make sure that they didn't get a swelled head, and Shishido was the one doing the cutting for Gakuto. God knew that Oshitari, who was known to wax poetic about the smallest little things about Gakuto, wasn't helping.

* * *

Jirou yawned and blinked his eyes open as he heard the bickering of his two best friends. Ryou, Gakuto and Jirou were the best of friends, even before they were found out to be Strangers and sent to live in Hyoutei House. They had attended the same school and were inexplicably drawn to each other on their first day. Oshitari had a theory that the power in every Stranger, though underdeveloped, was strong enough to attract each other, similar to magnets.

"The bathroom isn't free yet, Jirou," said Keigo quietly from beside him. "Shishido's in there, and Gakuto hasn't had a turn yet."

Jirou turned and snuggled into Keigo's side. Keigo raised his arm to wrap it around Jirou for their mutual comfort. "Yeah, but I want to get back at Gakuto for tripping over me last week," Jirou replied, smiling sleepily.

"That's what happens when you fall asleep in the middle of the hallway," admonished Keigo, turning a page in his book.

"But I was so tired that day!" whined Jirou. "Plus, everyone should be used to me already."

"Gakuto was half-asleep," explained Keigo, removing his reading glasses and setting them onto the bedside table. "He and Oshitari had been, ah, _playing_ all night."

Keigo was disgusted and slightly embarrassed at his own statement, Jirou could tell. Jirou grinned up at his boyfriend. "How do you know they were playing all night?" he purred.

"The walls are thin, as I'm sure you've noticed," Keigo commented, raising an eyebrow. Jirou understood where he was coming from. Their housemates had, on more than one occasion, told them to keep the noise down to a minimum. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for Keigo, who enjoyed hearing Jirou's noises in bed), Jirou was a screamer, and was unable to contain himself however hard he tried.

Also, Jirou and Keigo's shared room was right next to Oshitari and Gakuto's, and, well...

Let's just say that the Dirty Pair wasn't called the Dirty Pair for nothing.

"Anyway," continued Keigo, putting his book away, "Shishido's almost done with his shower, I think, so if you want to have your revenge, we'll have to get in before Gakuto."

"Ha~i!" cheered Jirou, bouncing off the bed and tugging Keigo with him as he did so.

* * *

Gakuto was ready to fling himself into the bathroom the moment Ryou stepped out. He was even prepared to fling himself through the door and Ryou himself to make sure no one got in before him. Taki could be one sly dog sometimes.

Speaking of Taki, the effeminate boy skipped round the corner and narrowed his eyes at Gakuto. "Gakuto," he said in greeting, flexing his fingers.

"Taki," replied Gakuto, staring at the taller boy as he tensed his muscles.

"Today I will win," said Taki, glaring in a way that reminded Gakuto of Seigaku House's Tezuka when he was angry.

"Oh? Somehow, I doubt that," drawled Gakuto, making use of Taki's amplification power to see through the door and keep an eye on its locking mechanism in his peripheral vision while eyeing Taki up and down. Normally, without Taki's amplification, Gakuto would have been unable to control his x-ray vision to such a degree and would have ended up peeping at Ryou in the shower.

Gakuto suppressed a shudder of disgust. The mere thought was disgusting. How Ohtori put up with the bastard was a mystery to Gakuto.

"Want to bet?" Taki growled fiercely. Normally, Taki Haginosuke didn't growl at anything, but Gakuto, just like anyone else in Hyoutei House, knew that Taki was very concerned about his personal hygiene and appearance.

Just then, the mechanism in the door jumped, and Ryou sauntered out, his dark green towel tied loosely on his hips. "Shower's free, guys," he said tauntingly, then turned on the spot and disappeared, leaving little more than a shower of little sparkles.

_The sparkles are kind of gay,_ thought Gakuto absently, tensing and watching Taki carefully. Taki did the same, eyeing Gakuto and waiting for the smaller boy to make a move.

The staring match had gone on for a riduculous amount of time, and Gakuto was getting ready to launch himself into the bathroom...

"Oh, it must be our turn already, Keigo!" cried Jirou loudly. He dove into the bathroom and dragged Atobe in with him, made the peace sign at Gakuto and Taki, then closed the door and locked it.

For the second time that day, Gakuto stared at the closed bathroom door in shock as the situation sank in.

"Jirou, you bastard!" he yelled through the door. The only reply he got was a mischievous giggle.

Cursing anything and everything under the sky, Gakuto settled down to wait for the lovebirds to come out.

"Want to have a go at my DS?" asked Taki. For now, they were on the same side, cursing Jirou and Atobe and their time consuming shower time. "We're going to be waiting for a long time."

"Yeah," sighed Gakuto in agreement. "You got Rhythm Heaven on this thing?"


	4. Chapter 4

Akaya whimpered as he huddled under the covers, trying to block out the pain.

"Akaya?" asked Yukimura, whisper soft. "Akaya, what are you doing here?"

By _here_, Yukimura meant in his and Sanada's shared bed. "It hurts," Akaya whispered in reply. "It hurts!"

Yukimura was instantly worried. "What hurts? What's wrong?"

Akaya whimpered again and shook his head, clenching his fists tighter in the comforter.

"Genichirou," Yukimura called. Sanada, on Akaya's other side, rolled over with a grunt.

"Genichirou!" Yukimura called again, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Hmm," said Sanada, obviously not fully awake.

Yukimura sat up. By what Akaya could hear, Yukimura threw his pillow with precision and power expected of the House Leader into Sanada's head. Sanada immediately sat up and flung the pillow off of him. "What? What happened?" he murmured, obviously still half asleep.

"Genichirou," said Yukimura sweetly, and even without looking, Akaya could feel the murderous aura behind the sweet smile that was bound to be there. "I called you twice. Akaya isn't feeling well. Please call Renji in to check on him."

"Yes, Seiichi," Sanada said obediently, then got up and left.

Akaya groaned as another wave of pain swept over him. "It hurts, Mura," he whispered to Yukimura, the whites of his eyes turning red.

Seiichi noticed the look and recognized it. He quickly pulled the younger boy into an embrace. "Shh, calm down, Akaya," he said soothingly. "Everything will be fine."

Contrary to popular belief, Akaya, who was of demon lineage, was very needy for attention and affection despite his bloodlust. Seiichi, who acted as a sponge, had soaked up some of Akaya's memories, and through them found out his history. It wasn't a very cheerful one.

_Akaya's father, a full demon, had been killed when he was found in the Kirihara residence. His mother was spared because she had been out that day and claimed she didn't know he was staying in her house. Akaya was, at the time, a normal-looking child, and his mother told the authorities that Akaya was her son and that she was a single mother. The police accepted this story and left them alone._

_Akaya's mother warned him to never, under any circumstances, let them find out his true identity and kill him for it. Akaya agreed to it, of course, but it was all for naught the moment his powers started to manifest physically, in the form of horns, fangs, a tail and tiny black wings. His mother, to her credit, did all she could to protect him, but there was only so much she could do before somebody found out and reported them to the authorities._

_Akaya watched in horror as the police took his mother into custody. His mother shouted and screamed and tried her very best to protect her son, but it was all useless, and her thrashing caused her to hit her head on the wall. She died, and Akaya stared in horror._

_Slowly, the shock settled in, and Akaya's eyes turned red in anger. "You killed my mother," he whispered dangerously. "You killed her!"_

_His mind went blank and the next thing he knew, all three of the officers who came to take him away were dead. Akaya was covered in blood, and instantly he knew that he was the one who had killed them._

_Akaya did the only thing that made sense to him– he ran. He let his instincts guide him, and he ran until he couldn't run anymore._

_And he ended up in front of Rikkai House._

Renji came in, looking the most disheveled Seiichi had ever seen him, and Seiichi assumed that Genichirou, who wasn't the most... gentle of people on his best day (nights with Seiichi had been discounted, of course), had practically (or maybe literally) dragged him out of bed in his worry for the youngest Stranger in the house. Akaya held a special place in each of their hearts and everyone knew it. It was something about his innocence, his optimism that was such a contrast from the others' darkness.

"What's wrong?" asked Renji, sitting on the bed. Seiichi shook his head and pressed a kiss to Akaya's head before releasing him for Renji's examination. "He says it hurts everywhere," said Seiichi, his worry showing through his tone. "What do you think?"

Renji frowned. "It could be that Akaya is a Stranger who is able to sense the powers of other Strangers as they activate," said Renji as he checked Akaya's pulse. "He could be more sensitive to the power because of his direct bloodline to a pure Stranger, but this is all theoretical. I suggest we get Seigaku House's newest recruit, Oishi, to have a look at him."

Seiichi selected telepathy from the arsenal of powers he had absorbed over the years and contacted Seigaku House's Leader, Tezuka. Normally he would have contacted their mentor, Ryuuzaki-sensei, but she had gone to coach a tennis team in the Kanto tournament. She was one of the only Strangers who dared go out amongst the humans. It was somewhat dangerous for her at her age, though; she was already 45, and Strangers had a shorter lifespan than humans.

But, of course, Seiichi was going off topic.

_Tezuka-kun. Is Oishi-kun free?_

_Ah, Yukimura. Oishi's gone out with Syuusuke and Echizen to retrieve a new Stranger._

_Oh. Well, never mind, I'll contact Hyoutei's Akutagawa-kun instead. Thank you for your time, Tezuka-kun._

_Likewise, Yukimura._

That was one of the things Seiichi liked about Tezuka; he never stretched anything out longer than it had to be.

"Oishi-kun isn't in," said Seiichi out loud absently as he connected to Hyoutei House's Leader, Atobe. Their own mentor, Sakaki, was another Stranger who dared walk the human world on a daily basis. He was currently at a musical convention of some sort under a different name.

_Atobe-kun. Is Akutagawa-kun free?_

_Yukimura, Ore-sama is in the middle of his shower. What is it you need with Jirou?_

_Our Akaya is feeling some sort of pain, possibly due to an ability to sense new Strangers, much like your Hiyoshi._

_Hmm. The symptoms?_

_Just a tingling pain, like needles stabbing at every inch of his skin._ Seiichi had picked up a bit more than a normal person did through the comforting hug he had given his protégée.

_Certainly sounds like Hiyoshi's power. Very well, Ore-sama and Jirou will be over in ten minutes._

_See you then._

"Akutagawa-kun and Atobe-kun will be over in ten minutes," Seiichi relayed the message to Renji and Genichirou. "Until then, I will calm Akaya down so he doesn't destroy anything," Seiichi decided as he pulled the whimpering half-demon into his arms once again.

Both men nodded, and Renji stood up. "I'll wake the others and alert them of this development," he said. Seiichi agreed with him. The team would be worried about the little half-demon, and heaven knew Genichirou couldn't do the waking up. He'd end up slapping them all across the face. A little wry smile from Renji told Seiichi that the data man was thinking the same thing.

"I'll go with you," offered Genichirou, oblivious to the thoughts of his best friends.

"No," said Renji hurriedly. "I'll be fine."

"Why don't you make us all breakfast?" suggested Seiichi, smiling sweetly. "I'm sure that Marui-kun will be very hungry when he wakes up."

Genichirou grimaced at the thought of his beautiful masterpiece waffles disappearing so fast down Marui's gullet it didn't seem like the redhead could actually taste them.

"Please?" Seiichi added, using The Face. The Face was something that nobody in the world could say no to, and Genichirou was no exception. Seiichi knew this, and often used it to his advantage.

"Yes, Seiichi," said Genichirou with a resigned sigh.

"Chin up, Gen. Let's see a smile," suggested Seiichi, but everyone knew that a 'suggestion' was just a euphemism for an 'order' when it was issued by Seiichi.

Genichirou smiled.

Seiichi smiled back widely. "You look very handsome, Gen. You may both go."

Renji half-bowed and Genichirou went over to peck Seiichi on the cheek, then they both left the room.

Seiichi smiled fondly. Rikkai was a family, a replacement for all the family each of them had lost, and it was going to stay that way forever. No matter what.

Keigo and Jirou were ushered into Yukimura's room by a few very worried housemates. They tried to mask it, of course, because Rikkai hated to show weakness. Keigo's Insight saw through everything, though, and he could clearly see the worry in every twitch.

Yukimura was looking very fragile and yet very motherly in his pajamas as he hugged that little demon to his chest comfortingly. Personally, Keigo thought that the demon was one of the most annoying people he had ever met, but obviously Rikkai thought of him fondly.

"Hi Yukimura-kun!" greeted Jirou, cheerful as he always was when awake. He bounced over to Yukimura and tilted his head. "Kirihara-kun is hurting, huh?" he commented to himself, tapping his chin. "Well, let me have a look!"

Yukimura released Kirihara from the warm embrace and Jirou proceeded to do a routine check-up, starting with two fingers to the patient's forehead, then moving down to the neck, and then to the arms, abdomen and legs. As usual, Jirou's more serious side came out as he examined Kirihara.

Keigo wasn't thrilled at the sight of Jirou running his hands all over another man, but it was strictly professional, and this was a patient who needed help. He wasn't jealous. _He wasn't jealous_, damn it!

"Hmm," said Jirou, gently placing a hand on Kirihara's heart. "Your Yanagi was right. He's developing a new ability. He'll get used to it soon, but right now the pain is too much for him to handle." Jirou's hand glowed a soft green that, Keigo knew from experience, was warm and made you feel like you were on the most comfortable place on Earth.

"Right now, I'm sending in a bit of power to soothe his pain," continued Jirou, "but Yukimura-kun should absorb my power and knowledge of treatments later. You have to wean him off the healing slowly, bit by bit, like humans do with morphine."

Yukimura nodded in understanding. Keigo theorized that in his time in a human hospital, Yukimura had picked up a few things about that sort of thing.

Jirou's green power could be seen being carried to all parts of Kirihara's body as the heart pumped. Jirou himself had a focused look on his face, and Keigo marveled at how professional Jirou could be when the time called for it. Normally, the blonde boy was ditzy and cheerful and adorable in every way, but now he was serious, and truth be told, Keigo had been a little scared the first time he saw that focused and determined gleam in Jirou's eyes. He'd half-thought some evil was possessing Jirou, though common sense won and Keigo accepted that 'serious' (as well as the 'get the hell away from my boyfriend you goddamned bitch!' variety of murderous) was a part of Jirou that showed itself on occasion.

Jirou's hand faded back to a normal color and he grinned widely at Yukimura. "All done! I just put him to sleep for a while," he added, nodding at the already sleeping Kirihara. "Because I have a feeling he's been up for a while with the pain."

Seiichi smiled and nodded at Jirou's consideration. "Thank you, Jirou-kun," he said, relieved. "We wouldn't have known what to do without you."

Jirou smiled and saluted cutely. "All in a day's work, Yukimura-kun!"

Atobe cleared his throat, looking impatient and annoyed. "Now that the issue has been dealt with, we would appreciate it if you would send us back home, Yukimura," he said, crossing his arms. "I had planned extra mental training with my team, and I'm sure Oshitari is letting them slack off in my absence."

Seiichi selected teleportation from his mental room of neatly organized abilities and bade them a brief goodbye before trapping them in a white sphere and sending them off with a little blue spark.

It took a moment of watching Akaya sleep peacefully for Seiichi to realize that he had forgotten to absorb some of Jirou's power. Seiichi allowed himself to utter a curse once, then sighed and decided that it would just have to wait till later.

Yukimura joined his team at the breakfast table in his proper clothing as he settled into the seat at the head of the table. "So how's Aka-chan?" asked Niou casually, stealing a piece of bacon off of Yagyuu's plate. Yagyuu calmly stole a slice of Niou's ham in retaliation and said, "Yanagi-kun was right, I assume?"

"Hff ahkfa awfright?" asked Marui through a mouthful of food. Sanada, in the corner, was sulking in a very pink, very girly apron, though no one but Yanagi and Yukimura noticed. "He can't understand you if you speak with your mouth full, Bunta," Jackal reminded the redhead with a light nudge to the side.

"There is a 96 percent chance that my theory was correct, 3 percent chance of the repercussions of Sadaharu's juice only affecting Akaya-kun now, 1 percent chance he is dying due to unknown reasons," said Yanagi, spooning multiple baked beans into his mouth as he did so.

"Why the 1 percent?" asked Jackal, curious.

"Because I only know 99 percent of all the illnesses that can kill," said Yanagi calmly.

"...How do you know that you only know 99 percent if you don't actually know every illness in the world?" asked Niou, frowning.

Yanagi put a forkful of ham into his mouth. "Just a feeling," he said after swallowing.

"A feeling," repeated Niou disbelievingly, rolling his eyes.

"Akaya is fine," said Yukimura after tracing the conversation back to its original source. "Yanagi-kun was, as always, correct in his assumption."

"Of course," said Yanagi, sounding less arrogant and more matter-of-fact.

"So now we have our very own little Stranger tracking device instead of having to borrow another House's every time it's Rikkai week!" cheered Marui, spraying crumbs on Niou and Yagyuu.

"I'll kill you!" exclaimed Niou angrily, slamming his hands on the table dramatically as he rose from his seat and glared at Marui.

Yagyuu calmly extracted a handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped his face with it. "Do you... have a death wish?" he asked, low and dark as he took off his glasses to clean them off. The dark, murderous aura around him was almost visible.

"Niou-kun, Yagyuu-kun," said Yukimura, his tone mild with underlying steel. "This is the breakfast table, not the training grounds. I understand your anger, but you may take out your frustrations on Marui-kun later, during training."

Niou sat down and Yagyuu placed his glasses back on his face, murderous aura gone. Marui's mouth fell open in horror. With Yukimura, one had to read between the lines. Marui, having read between the lines, understood that Yukimura was going to give them the opportunity to beat Marui up later. Crap.

Yukimura paused, scrutinizing Niou and Yagyuu. "Also," he added. "It would be nice if you wouldn't pull your tricks this early in the morning."

Niou and Yagyuu exchanged a glance. Then Niou-pretending-to-be-Yagyuu shifted back into his original shape. Yagyuu-pretending-to-be-Niou removed his Niou-wig and passed it to Niou to stow away in his hammerspace.

"Holy crap," said Jackal, glancing between the two. "Since when have you two been able to pull of each other's personalities so well?"

"It was Niou-kun's idea," said Yagyuu, removing his colored contacts and replacing them with his usual opaque glasses. "He thought it would be interesting if we could deceive our opponents into thinking we were each other and reveal the truth in the middle of battle."

"Well," said Yanagi thoughtfully, "it would throw them off for a little bit."

"Genichirou, come have breakfast with us," suggested Yukimura. "Stop sulking and have some of your cooking."

"I've already eaten, Seiichi."

"Well, then, at least have a cup of tea."

"No, thank you, Seiichi."

"I insist."

"...Yes, Seiichi."

Yukimura smiled at his team, his family, as he set his fork and knife sideways on his plate. "Alright team, training will commence in an hour. Please be ready for it by then. Excuse me."

Yanagi hummed once Yukimura had left. "Seiichi ate 30 percent quicker today. Genichirou, I suggest you follow him once you've finished your tea," he added, nodding at Sanada.

Sanada caught the drift that no one besides he and Yanagi seemed to notice and gulped down his tea so quickly his housemates wouldn't have been surprised if he'd swallowed the tea leaves as well. "Excuse me," he murmured, then hurried down the same corridor Yukimura disappeared into.

"What just happened?" Jackal asked, blinking.

Niou blinked, his quick mind processing the conversation and came to a conclusion with a sly grin. "Oh~ I get it," he said, nodding. "So subtle. That's expected of our leader, really."

Marui frowned. "What?"

Yagyuu, catching on thanks to Niou's mannerisms, merely shook his head. "You don't want to know, Marui-kun," he said. "At least, not from Niou-kun."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean, huh, Yagyuu?"

"All I'm saying is that you can be rather... crude at times, Niou-kun."

"It's part of my charm, baby."

"Of course it is."

"What's with that tone?"

"Nothing. I'm agreeing with you."

"You're not. You never agree with people."

"We're talking about me, not you, Niou-kun."

"Yeah, I know. You never agree with people _on the inside_. On the outside it's smiles and agreements and on the inside there's _something_ there that thinks that the person is a complete idiot."

"...You said it, I didn't."

"Bastard!"

Renji chuckled as the pair bickered. Hiroshi, before Masaharu had come to Rikkai House, had been very antisocial and reclusive. He preferred to hide behind his mask of politeness instead of truly voicing his opinions. Nobody had managed to coax him out of his shell.

And then Masaharu came and not so much coaxed him out of his shell than broke the shell open with a sledgehammer, and now Hiroshi couldn't have been happier than he was when he argued with Masaharu.

Seiichi and Genichirou were upstairs screwing like rabbits, Masaharu and Hiroshi were bickering like an old married couple, Jackal was attempting to break the argument up, Bunta was eating his body weight and Akaya was sleeping peacefully.

Renji smiled. All was right with the world.

Or, at least, Rikkai House.


	5. Chapter 5

Ryoma, along with Oishi and Fuji, made their way to the park, Oishi's Stranger bangle disguised as a fashion accessory. Every Stranger was issued a silver bangle with a code engraved upon it –provided they get caught by the authorities, that is. Oishi, as far as Ryoma knew, had been trapped in a government facility for at least three months when the police found him and his parents. Ryoma didn't know all the details, but Oishi and his parents were captured and contained in separate cells.

Then his powers for healing developed and Seigaku House came to get him. Ryoma could remember that mission in vivid detail. They'd had to plan very carefully, and, for the first and last time since he'd joined Seigaku, every member of the team had to participate to get him, all seven of them.

Even Momoshiro, who'd been a newbie at the time, had a vital part in the proceedings. They'd also had to borrow Hyoutei's Mukahi for his x-ray vision so that they could plan, though he and Kikumaru had argued far too loudly for Mukahi to have taken part in the proper mission. The whole bunch barely escaped capture, though the original plan to evade detection had failed. They broke Oishi out by using a method much less elegant and subtle as originally planned – they handed two large hammers to Kawamura and let him smash the glass separating Oishi from the rest of the world into a million pieces.

The little hairs all over Ryoma's body stood on end all of a sudden, jolting him out of his memories and back into the present. Something was wrong. His instincts were screaming at him, telling him that he had to get to that new Stranger _now_.

Ryoma broke into a run, heading for a secluded field of sheep. Fuji and Oishi followed wordlessly, though they were probably worried. Ryoma ground his teeth. This person was overexerting his powers, which wasn't too hard to do considering he was a newbie. Possibly he was fighting off somebody and was using everything in his power to fight back. Ryoma picked up the pace. The Stranger might die, and Echizen Ryoma had already seen too many corpses in his fifteen years.

The oddest thing happened as they drew closer. The sheep's ears pricked forward and they all ran towards a single direction in unison, bleating urgently. "Something's up," muttered Ryoma to himself, frowning.

The sheep were running towards the source of the power, where the Stranger was. Maybe he could make animals do his bidding? But Strangers only ever had one power when their powers activated. If the animal controlling thing was his power, then why were the sheep only moving to help him now?

"The need to survive might have forced his second power to develop early," theorized Fuji, running alongside Ryoma gracefully. Ryoma's eyes widened. "Isn't that dangerous?" he asked.

"Yes," replied Fuji gravely, his eyes open and serious. "We have to get there before he kills himself with the burden of using two powers at once."

Ryoma forced himself to run faster. A single second could be crucial to saving this person's life.

As the recon team came close to their target, Ryoma noticed that there was more than one figure emitting power. "Duplication, huh?" he said to himself. "Fuji-san, Oishi-san, be careful about who you attack! This one's a duplicator!" he called to Fuji and Oishi, only three steps behind him.

Once they reached their destination, Ryoma slid to a stop and grabbed the person attacking the Stranger by the shoulder as he did so. He degenerated a bit of the skin there, letting the skin crumble into dust and letting blood flow down the attacker's arm. "Leave him alone or I turn your head into dust," snarled Ryoma.

Ryoma didn't expect the man to back down. The man didn't defy expectations and attempted to spit in Ryoma's face, but Ryoma, anticipating this, had already slipped around to his other side and degenerated the skin and some of the muscle on the man's forearm. The man screamed in pain, and Oishi, Ryoma noticed from the corner of his eye, flinched.

"Look over here," said Fuji in his best seductive woman voice. The man probably knew it was a trick, but most of Fuji's male victims did, and yet they all fell for it anyway. No man could ignore that voice.

Inevitably, the man's eyes flickered to Fuji for perhaps an instant. But, of course, an instant was enough – the moment he looked into Fuji's eyes, he was immobilized.

Ryoma went over to the fallen Stranger, ready to degenerate Fuji's power if the boy happened to have glanced his way as well. He had, and Ryoma carefully poked the layer of sky blue power around his body's natural, rich, emerald green. Immediately, the boy began to cough and pant, and Ryoma rose in case he accidentally came into contact with the boy and degenerated something he didn't mean to.

Instead, Ryoma joined Fuji's attempts to shoo off the sheep, who, after bleating worriedly at the injured boy

"My name is Oishi Syuuichirou, and I'm a healer," said Oishi calmly to the panicking boy. "Can you tell me where it hurts?"

The boy coughed a little more. "E-Everywhere," he grunted unhelpfully. "R-Ribs, my r-right leg, m-my shoulder might be d-dislocated."

Oishi nodded and his hands glowed a soothing green as he lowered them to the boy's chest. Ryoma knew from experience that the healing was going to hurt like hell and moved to Fuji's side.

Oishi, obviously attempting to distract the boy, asked, "What's your name?"

The boy gasped in pain, then grit his teeth and growled out, "Kaidoh... Kaidoh Kaoru."

"And how old are you?" asked Oishi, moving his hands down to another rib.

"S-Sixteen."

"Any family?" Oishi asked calmly, yet again moving down from one rib to another.

"M-My parents," replied Kaidoh gruffly. "A-And my l-little brother, H-Hazue."

Fuji knelt beside the bandana-wearing boy, deciding to pick up the questioning. Ryoma noted that Oishi's face was starting to show signs of strain, and reminded himself that Oishi was still relatively new to his powers, and was probably finding it hard to divide his attention.

"Tell me about your little brother," said Fuji, smiling like he always did.

"H-Hazue is one of t-the most s-stubborn people I've e-ever met," stammered Kaidoh, probably understanding what they were attempting to do. Even so, he let out a groan as Oishi held his glowing hands over the bloodiest patch of Kaidoh's shirt.

"Little brothers are like that," said Fuji, nodding in agreement. "And yet we still love them, ne?"

"M-More than a-anything in the world," gasped Kaidoh, clenching his eyes shut. Ryoma decided that this Kaidoh was alright. Healing cracked ribs really _hurt_, but Kaidoh was gritting his teeth and taking it like a man. That was so much more than he could say for Momoshiro, who had been a huge wimp when his own ribs had to be healed.

Kaidoh let out a long, low hiss that reminded Ryoma of a snake hissing as Oishi moved on to the last rib that needed fixing. Fuji started recounting an amusing story about his brother that actually had Kaidoh chuckling, then wincing as the half-fixed rib moved.

"Alright, Kaidoh-kun, sit up," said Oishi, his brow covered in sweat. "This is going to hurt, but just for a moment, okay?"

Kaidoh hissed a long hiss. Oishi took it as a sign of agreement and popped Kaidoh's shoulder back into its socket. Kaidoh let out a shout at the pain, then an embarrassed hiss.

Oishi ignored both, pressed a glowing green hand to Kaidoh's shoulder and turned Kaidoh's leg gently. Oishi cursed softly as he caught sight of the bone-deep wound on Kaidoh's calf. Ryoma shook his head. "You can't do it, Oishi-san," he said plainly. "You don't have enough power." Ryoma could see Oishi's yellow power inside the his body, but the faint yellow, for the most part, was overpowered by the angry red of pain. When Oishi healed, he took the pain into his own body and theoretically, could transfer the pain out to others. Oishi, being of gentle nature, had never tried, however.

Oishi shook his head stubbornly. "If I don't, Kaidoh-kun could die," he said firmly.

"And if you do, you might die," Fuji pointed out. "We should go back and let Hyoutei's Akutagawa or Ryuuzaki-sensei's granddaughter Sakuno deal with it."

"Seconded," said Ryoma firmly. "Outnumbered, Oishi-san. You three take the teleporter to the nearest entrance. I'll meet you guys back home later."

Fuji nodded. "Don't do anything you're not supposed to, Echizen," he said.

Ryoma nodded. "I won't. Now go."

Fuji made sure he, Kaidoh and Oishi were in direct, skin-to-skin contact before tapping the red center of what appeared to be a very ostentatious ring and disappearing with a slight shimmer.

Ryoma cracked his knuckles. Time to degenerate some memories.


	6. Chapter 6

Hyoutei House was always different from the rest in the fact that they trained not only to fight back against human attacks, but also rival Houses. Hyoutei House was once just Hyoutei, and they were a gang back in the day, a gang where only the toughest survived and if you lost a battle, your teammates, your _brothers_, would leave you there to die.

Nowadays, Hyoutei was a lot more relaxed, and had even turned into a House for Strangers with no guardians. Nobody was really sure why they'd let impressionable teenagers join a House that was once a rather violent gang, but since no one at Hyoutei House had ever developed gang-like tendencies, the matter was dismissed.

However, the tradition of the training never changed. Hyoutei prepared for attack from Strangers, though they also made sure to be ready for human attacks. Thus, mental training was vital, in case telepathists tried to take control of their minds and turn them against each other.

The only House besides Hyoutei who originated from a gang was Rikkai, but Rikkai, then Rikkai Dai, had very few members who were the best of the best, each of them unmerciful and deadly.

But, of course, I digress.

Hyoutei generally did mental training for about an hour. They started with meditation, then Oshitari would attempt to break into their minds. After mental training every day, Hyoutei would send two or more of its members to walk the human world and gather information. Sometimes it paid to know what was going on in the human world, especially since their worlds were connected.

Besides that, the kind of information gathered might be of the 'we're attacking the Strangers at this time tomorrow' sort, and then the Strangers would be ready.

* * *

Gakuto stood on a street corner, nervously fiddling with the silver bangle around his wrist. Of course, this fiddling was less because he was nervous and more because he was trying to hide its nature from the human world. He huffed in annoyance. Where the hell was Yuushi? They were supposed to meet up here ten minutes ago!

At last, after fifteen minutes of waiting impatiently, Yuushi, wearing a wig and colored contacts to hide his horns and eye color, emerged from a taxi. Gakuto missed Yuushi's tail, really; it was soft and furry, and its spaded end was good for poking Taki and Hiyoshi when they were making out. Taki screamed like a girl and jumped three feet in the air. It was _priceless_.

"Yo, Gakuto," said Yuushi, sounding distracted and slightly worried. "Sorry I'm late. I got very interesting information."

"Yeah, whatever," huffed Gakuto. "Let's just get out of here. If one more person tries to hit on me, I swear I'm going to kill something."

"Women were hitting on you?" Yuushi asked, sounding amused as they walked down the street to a very familiar alleyway.

"High school girls. They thought my figure was good. I told them I was a gymnast."

"Well, your figure is very nice, and I'm sure you can pull off tumbling well enough to fool them."

"Well, yeah, but then a dude overheard and assumed I was gay."

"Which you are."

"Not when random perverts start hitting on me!"

"Technically it's not their fault. You have to face facts, Gakuto, you hold many uke qualities."

"What? Oh, come on, Yuushi, the height rule is so outdated!"

"It still makes sense, doesn't it? It's applied to nearly every couple we know."

"What about Ryou and Ohtori?"

"I _did_ say 'almost'."

"We're here. Come on, quick, before someone comes by," whispered Gakuto, ushering Yuushi to what seemed to be the dead end of an alley. Looking around with his x-ray vision, Gakuto said quietly, "Human in T-minus 5, 4, 3, 2…"

Oshitari grabbed Gakuto, threw him against the wall and started to kiss the living daylights out of the shorter boy. Gakuto threw his arms around Yuushi's neck and looked through his eyelids to watch the human walk past the alley with a shake of his head at them. Probably thinking that they were horny teenagers playing hooky.

…Well, technically, they were horny teenagers, but they weren't playing hooky.

Once the human had passed, Yuushi pulled away with an amused grin. "That was another one who thought you were a girl."

Gakuto sighed and rolled his eyes. "What else is new?" he asked sarcastically, sighing.

"Only three people have ever really realized your true gender upon seeing our act," chuckled Yuushi.

Gakuto snorted. "Yeah, _you_ laugh, but it's so difficult getting people to take me seriously when I look so much like a girl!" complained Gakuto. Shaking his head to clear it, he took Yuushi's hand in his right hand and placed his other on the brick wall before them.

"Any humans?" asked Gakuto in a whisper.

"The next one will arrive within eyeshot in five minutes," Yuushi whispered back, his low, sex phone operator voice sending shivers down Gakuto's spine. Ignoring the surge of lust that shot through his body (hey, he was a perfectly healthy teenage boy), Gakuto threw Yuushi a grin. "That's more than enough time."

Gakuto pushed Yuushi against the wall gently, focused his power and phased Yuushi in slowly. If he did it too fast, his powers might decide to stop working and leave Yuushi halfway through the wall. Gakuto always phased his passenger through before he went through himself. It was always easier when he could see the object he was phasing. Yuushi thought that it was a psychological thing. Gakuto thought he was pretty psycho.

Once Yuushi was through, Gakuto stepped through the wall as if it weren't there and waited patiently as Yuushi removed his wig and shook his hair out. His tail poked out of the hole in the seat of his pants that had previously been covered by his shirt and prodded Gakuto affectionately.

Gakuto smiled and ran his thumb over the spade. Yuushi purred like a cat, which Gakuto grinned at, but Gakuto knew that staying in the tunnels for too long could get dangerous. Making too much noise could attract human attention, and that was something any of the tunnel users wanted. "C'mon, Yuushi," he whispered to his tall, blue-haired friend. "We have to get going."

Yuushi nodded in agreement, and they made their way to Hyoutei House with little incident. Once they reached the front door, however, Gakuto and Yuushi raised an eyebrow in perfect unison.

Completely unrehearsed. Thank you, thank you, hold your applause, thank you.

Ahem.

"Whose shoes are these?" asked Yuushi with a frown. "We have visitors?"

Gakuto shrugged and tilted his head. "We should be on guard," he said lowly, shoving a hand inside his pocket casually. "It might be a rival gang with eyes and ears everywhere. Don't let them think you suspect anything."

"You're right, Gakuto," said Yuushi loudly. "It's probably nothing."

Gakuto grinned. "Right. Now come on! I'm starving."

Yuushi opened the door, and they both toed their shoes off before entering.

"Tadaima," they called, rather nasally, in unison.

"Okairinasai!" called Ohtori, also rather nasally, from the living room. Gakuto relaxed. There wasn't a gang in the house ready to kill every member of Hyoutei House.

Yuushi shook his head and frowned at Gakuto. _He might be a shapeshifter,_ said Yuushi's voice in his head. _Like that guy from Rikkai House._

Gakuto's eyes widened. _I… I hadn't thought of that._

Yuushi led the way into the living room, sitting down next to Ohtori. "Who do the shoes belong to?" asked Yuushi carefully, staring Ohtori in the eye. Ohtori smiled. "Oh, those. Well, Seigaku House went to rescue a Stranger today, and he was hurt pretty badly. Oishi-san tried his best to heal the poor boy, but…"

"He was too inexperienced," finished Gakuto, fishing two soda cans out of the fridge and tossing one to Yuushi. "He couldn't take it."

Ohtori nodded, his smile turning slightly sad. "Yes. The boy, Kaidoh Kaoru-kun, had a leg injury when he was brought here for Jirou-san to heal."

"The wound was nasty," added Ryou as he stepped into the room. "Sliced his leg open, right down to the bone. Even Jirou made a face when he saw it, and you know how much he hates worrying his patients when he does that."

_They're the real deal,_ said Yuushi to Gakuto, nodding. _Not even a master of mimicry could imitate the Ohtori and Shishido so well._

Gakuto nodded. _I understand. The story checks out, too,_ he added, looking up through the ceiling. _That Kaidoh's got some guts. That obviously hurts, but he's not screaming the house down like a normal person would._

_Like you did once?_

_The house is still intact,_ argued Gakuto. _It doesn't count as screaming the house down if the house isn't actually down._

"Will you two stop it?" demanded Ryou, looking pissed off. "Stop having a mental conversation when you could have it right in the open!"

Gakuto blinked. "How did you know we were having a mental conversation?" he asked, genuinely curious.

Ryou huffed. "As if it's not obvious from those faces you guys keep making! Geez. That's really rude, you know, and it feels like you're keeping secrets from the rest of the house!"

"Ryou-san," admonished Ohtori. "Calm down. Sorry, Gakuto-san, Oshitari-san," Ohtori added, nodding at them. "Though… it does kind of hurt my feelings," he said, making a sad, kicked puppy face.

"Sorry," said Yuushi and Gakuto in unison, both suckers for the face (just like everyone else in Hyoutei).

Ryou huffed and looked away. "Oh, sure, apologize to him and not to me!" he sniffed, sounding wounded.

Gakuto rolled his eyes at Yuushi. "Sorry, Ryou," he said, obviously humoring his best friend.

Ryou stuck his tongue out childishly and Gakuto did the same.

"Gakuto, don't stick out your tongue in front of me," said Yuushi absently. He'd picked up a book from God knows where and started reading.

Yuushi did that sometimes; he'd just pick up any random book, flip to a random page and start reading. Even if he'd read the book a million times, he still enjoyed reading every part of it. Gakuto read books once, then moved on to the next one. What was the point of reading a book you'd already found out the ending to, anyway?

But anyway.

"Why not, Oshitari-san?" asked Ohtori innocently.

"Because," said Yuushi not-so-innocently, "it makes me want to do things to him."

"T-Things?"

"Yes, like–"

Gakuto clapped a hand over Yuushi's mouth and smiled at Ohtori. "Like kissing," he finished firmly. "Yeah, kissing."

Ohtori blinked. "Oh, that's very sweet," he said with that oh-so-innocent smile.

"Uh-huh," said Gakuto distractedly, releasing his boyfriend. "Sweet. Okay."

Then there were footsteps down the dtairs and Oishi came into view, followed by both Atobe and Jirou.

"Hello, Oshitari-san, Mukahi-san," said Oishi politely, bowing. "It's nice to see you again."

"Mm," agreed Gakuto. "The last time we saw you, it was when Jirou rushed over to heal you after you got whacked over the head by that bitch."

"The pregnant human just hit him with her umbrella when he tried to help her!" cried Jirou, upset at the memory. "Just because he's a Stranger. She's mean."

"Good news, though," said Gakuto to Oishi, grinning. "I found out today that she was actually the Prime Minister's wife, and she had a miscarriage."

"Oh," said Oishi faintly. He looked as if he wasn't sure if he shold be happy or sad at the news. Ryou, however, had no such reservations and burst into guffaws. "Serves her right!"

"As amusing as you plebians seem to find this irrelevant piece of information," sniffed Atobe haughtily, "I want to know if anything important happened."

"It did, Atobe," said Yuushi seriously, his eyes dark and dangerous behind his glasses. The atmosphere in the room sobered as all eyes settled on Yuushi.

Yuushi looked them all in the eye, one by one, and said, "America intends to launch an attack on Japan."


	7. Chapter 7

The statement was met with a number of dramatic gasps.

"Why?" asked Jirou, his voice cracking, once he'd recovered from the shock.

Oshitari shook his head. "I don't know. Even the man I heard it from didn't know. He was scouting out Tokyo, wondering if they should attack here first. There are scouts in every region, and after the mission they'll all fly back to America to report back and let the higher-ups decide where to hit first."

"How can they hope to defeat us?" asked Atobe, frowning. "Did they come up with some sort of… weapon?"

Oshitari nodded. "This weapon… shoots a green ray of some sort, and will decompose humans entirely when it comes into contact with human DNA. It will not affect plants, animals or inanimate objects."

Shishido whistled. "That's some powerful shit," he said, shaking his head.

"Yup," said Oshitari.

"So… What do we do?" asked Ohtori, looking pale and shaken.

"We call a meeting," said Atobe, taking charge. "Oshitari, contact the Mentors. Shishido, get the House Leaders. Oishi, go back to Seigaku and tell Tezuka. We meet in the Courtyard in half an hour."

"Yes, sir," said Shishido, saluting (only half-mockingly), then he disappeared in a shower of sparkles.

Oishi left at a run, still pale and wordless. Obviously he wasn't ready for words.

Oshitari left to his room to get some peace and quiet to focus, and dragged Taki out of his make out session with Hiyoshi to help.

Jirou took a deep breath. "I'll go check on Kaidoh-kun," he said, escaping up the stairs.

Gakuto shook his head as if to clear it. "I have to do something," he said, his voice shaking. He was on the verge of panic, and he had to _move_ if he didn't want that to happen.

"Ohtori, let's play some tennis," he said suddenly. "I… I need to move."

Ohtori, who was more of the sit there in shock type than the move around to deal with things type, blinked. He was sorely tempted to say no, but his kind nature urged him to agree, and agree he did. "Alright," he said, rising from his seat. "Let's go."

Tennis was always exhilarating. Gakuto could finally _breathe_ when he played, when he jumped in the air, when he returned the ball from a position no one had even thought possible to get into.

Ohtori smashed the ball past Gakuto, and Gakuto tilted his head to one side, reminding himself to remain calm and assess the situation. He and Yuushi had been doubles partners for a long time in more than just love, and Yuushi always told him to calm down and assess the situation instead of letting his feelings govern his actions. It was always better to have a plan before attacking. They'd won many a match, sparring or tennis, thanks to Yuushi's cool, calculating mind.

Gakuto bounced the yellow tennis ball four times before throwing it into the air and serving to the left corner. Ohtori returned it powerfully to Gakuto's right. Gakuto's backhand swing wasn't going to be enough to counter Ohtori's power, so he did a bit of elementary acrobatics – a quick handspring over and he returned the ball with a beautiful forehand.

It was no match for Ohtori, though. Thanks to Ohtori's bulky build, his shots naturally held more power than Gakuto's, who was strong from tennis and acrobatics but small-sized and more wiry than buff. It was ironic that the big kid on campus was the kindest, most gentle soul you could ever hope to meet and the smallest had the most explosive temper paired with a violent streak a mile long.

Ohtori slammed the ball back from the right corner and Gakuto returned with a drop shot to the right side of the court. If Ohtori had been less polite, Gakuto was sure that he would have cursed as he ran in an attempt to catch the ball.

Gakuto figured it was a good surprise; Gakuto rarely, if ever, used drop shots, though he pulled them off rather beautifully when he did. He'd mastered them quite a long time ago with the help of Yuushi and Jirou during the little time they had free, in between training, mental training, surveillance, sleeping, eating, cooking, cleaning and, of course, screwing like rabbits.

Gakuto was also capable of performing a drop volley, though he had to really _focus _in order to do so. Jirou, on the other hand, was able to do a drop volley even while half-asleep (he could do just about anything half-asleep, really), but Gakuto figured that Jirou was a lazy genius sort of character anyway.

"Game, Mukahi. One game all!" called Gakuto, smiling smugly.

"Nice shot, Gakuto-san," said Ohtori, grinning as sweat dripped down his face, narrowly avoiding his open, panting mouth. "I've never seen a drop shot so beautifully pulled off."

"Not for long," replied Gakuto, grinning back at the younger boy as he, too, panted heavily. His stamina had never been the best. "You know Seigaku House's Leader, Tezuka? Have you seen his Zero-Shiki Drop Shot?"

Ohtori blinked. "Zero… Shiki?" he repeated slowly, tilting his head to one side curiously.

Gakuto gave a lopsided grin. "It's awesome. I'll pester Atobe into playing a match with Tezuka. You'll see how amazing a match those two can play. Apparently they were once nationally ranked players, you know, before they were discovered to be Strangers."

"You'd dare to pester Atobe?" asked Ohtori in awe.

"Nah, I pester Jirou who pesters Atobe. It's a chain," he added, winking.

Ohtori laughed. "It is," he agreed. "Alright. It's my serve this time."

Gakuto smiled bitterly. "Do your worst," he said, bracing himself for the incoming serve. Ohtori had a killer serve that almost nobody could touch. As far as Gakuto knew, only Ryou and Seigaku's Inui could successfully return one of Ohtori's Scud Serves.

"Ikyuu nyuu kon!" And there was Ohtori's famous and mysterious catchphrase, 'one shot from my soul'. It was never clear to anyone except Ohtori himself (and perhaps Ryou) why exactly he ever said his phrase. Yuushi's theory was that it was related to his childhood and saying it helped him focus.

Gakuto's theory was that Ohtori was nervous and saying it gave him confidence. Confidence was something that Ohtori truly needed to make his serve. Ohtori had a confidence issue that Ryou had been attempting to fix for a long time.

Of course, the ball slammed past Gakuto. Gakuto barely managed to follow it with his eyes, let alone attempt to return it.

"Ace!" cried Ryou from somewhere to Gakuto's right. Gakuto wasn't surprised to hear him, really. He and Gakuto were alike in the fact that they needed to move to distract their brains from exploding. Jirou was the odd one out. If he needed to get any thinking done, he'd go to sleep and let his subconscious deal with it in his dreams.

Jirou did this when he was scared from horror movies, too, but that was not something that Gakuto or Ryou understood. Even Atobe didn't get the logic behind it, though each of them had their theories about it.

"R-Ryou-san!" cried Ohtori, turning to Ryou with wide eyes. "Did you want to play, too?"

Ryou shrugged, flashing Ohtori a sickeningly sweet smile that was supposed to be his most charming. A long, long time ago, Gakuto had actually been able to see the charm in Ryou's supposedly charming, slightly lopsided smile, but years of close proximity had caused the charm to dwindle to nothing. It was hard to think a dude who was nothing but a friend for over nine years was charming. At least, hard for Gakuto.

"I kind of need to do something to think, you know?" asked Ryou, hopping down the bleachers he was standing on. "I'm sure Gakuto had the same idea."

"Yeah," said Gakuto. "You know how similar we are. Jirou's sleeping?"

"Of course. That's how he deals with stuff." Ryou huffed as if frustrated he couldn't figure out the reason for his friend's strange habit. Gakuto sympathized, but he himself had given up on trying to figure Jirou out. You got compensation for being naturally smart and quick to learn, and Jirou's was his odd quirks.

"Where?" Gakuto asked instead of voicing all this out.

Ryou and Ohtori exchanged a glance.

"Um… what?" asked Ryou, obviously confused.

"Where's he sleeping?" Gakuto explained impatiently, scowling.

"Oh. He's sleeping in that guy Kaidoh's room. Just in case. You understand."

"Yup, totally." Jirou was a lot more sensitive to others' pain in his sleep for some reason. "Atobe's not going to see it that way, though," Gakuto added.

"He will," said Yuushi, showing up suddenly. "Doesn't mean he'll like it."

"Yuushi!" cried Gakuto, grinning widely. "What're you doing here?"

Yuushi adjusted his completely useless glasses. "I knew that both you and Shishido would be down here to play, and also that you had asked Ohtori to play with you earlier, so I came down to even out the playing ground. Doubles, anyone?"

"Sounds good," answered Ryou, grinning competitively. Ohtori smiled and nodded. "We're better at doubles, anyway, right Gakuto-san?"

Gakuto grinned and saluted him with his racket. "Of course we are. Come on, Yuushi, get down here! We're going to play!"

"Gakuto, that sounds wrong," said Yuushi, grinning lecherously.

"It's the demon blood in you talking," said Gakuto dismissively, waving the issue away with his racket. "Now come on already!"

"Hai, hai."

* * *

Kunimitsu had never seen Atobe look so serious in all the years he'd known the man. Generally, to Kunimitsu, Atobe was a very flashy individual who enjoyed showing off. Unlike other flashy individuals who liked to show off, Atobe was actually capable of backing his word up with his incredible skills, whether on the battlefield or on a tennis court. Atobe was incredibly arrogant, and some of his outfits were gayer than all the male Houses put together, but Atobe got the job done, and he did it well. Kunimitsu had the utmost respect for him.

So when Oishi burst through the door and told Kunimitsu to go to the Courtyard, saying that Atobe needed to meet him there urgently, Kunimitsu barely hesitated before dropping everything and leaving immediately.

The ceiling vibrated for a moment or two, then a large hole opened in the rock.

_They're coming,_ said a dramatic voice inside Kunimitsu, probably influenced by Syuusuke.

True enough, Ryuuzaki Sumire, Seigaku House's mentor, dressed in her usual pink tracksuit, descended out of the hole on a large slab of rock. Beside her was Sakaki Tarou, Hyoutei House's mentor, dressed smartly in a brown suit.

Ryuuzaki jumped off her slab and landed next to Kunimitsu. The rock continued to Atobe's side, and Sakaki disembarked in a slightly more graceful manner. The rock then glowed a faint forest green before attaching itself to the hole in the ceiling like a magnet would to steel.

"Tezuka!" said Ryuuzaki, pulling the tall boy into a hug. "I missed the team. What's going on here?"

Sumire had always thought of Seigaku House as her children. She was in charge of both Seigaku Houses, male and female, and she loved every one of them as if they were her own. She did have her own child once, a long time ago, but he'd given her one grandchild then passed away due to a traffic accident.

Because her son hadn't inherited any mutant genes despite having a Stranger mother, she'd sent him to live with his father in the human world and would visit him regularly. She was always careful and made sure that the humans never thought of her as a Stranger.

Eventually her son married a pediatrician and they had a child, Sakuno. Sakuno was a beautiful baby, born two weeks premature but quiet as a mouse when she wasn't hungry. Sumire had sensed the beginnings of a powerful ability in the baby, and she knew that Sakuno had the potential to be a Stranger with great power. She didn't tell her son as much, though; there was the possibility that Sakuno's powers would never develop, and she didn't want to worry her son unnecessarily.

Then Sakuno's parents met with an accident. It was a common way to go with humans, getting hit by someone who ran the red lights and failing to survive the crash. Ironically, as these things always go, the driver of the car that hit them had barely a scratch on him.

(Sumire made sure that he went to prison for his crime, though; he deserved it, and a vengeful Stranger like her couldn't do him damage while he was in a prison cell.)

Sumire had arranged their funerals and taken Sakuno in. Because Sumire was always busy with her Houses, Sakuno, who was eleven at the time, was put into the female Seigaku House, joining three other girls, Osakada Tomoka among them. It was then that Sakuno's powers started to develop. Sakuno was a healer, and a powerful one at that. Unfortunately, power that great, especially at the beginning of development, was difficult to control, and Sakuno's displaced healing energy often sparked instead of healed, so they had to get her fitted out with a suppressor in the shape of a flowery hairpin.

But more on that later.

"We missed you too, Ryuuzaki-san," said Kunimitsu. "I don't know what's going on. Atobe is about to address us."

True enough, Atobe stepped into the middle of the courtyard and cleared his throat.

"Mentors and Leaders of each and every House," Atobe addressed the crowd loudly, using his natural charisma to attract everyone's attention. "We, Hyoutei House, have received word that America intends to attack Japan with a weapon so brutal it could begin World War III!"

Murmurs immediately broke out amongst the crowd, and Kunimitsu felt his jaw slacken against his will. Ryuuzaki, beside him, drew a sharp breath.

Atobe huffed impatiently and snapped his fingers. The snap, just like every other Atobe-snap, seemed to reverberate around the courtyard and everybody fell silent.

"I understand your panic, but we have no time to do so. We must decide on a course of action!" declared Atobe. Kunimitsu nodded silently, crossing his arms. Atobe may have been a pompous ass sometimes, but he certainly knew how to _think _and _prioritize_, and not many people nowadays did.

"I declare we leave and let the humans suffer," called Yukimura coldly. "They would have done the same to us."

Assent from several members of the crowd was given through shouts of agreement. Kunimitsu stepped forward, frowning. "I do not want to kill innocents," he said, commanding attention. Kunimitsu did not have Atobe's natural charisma, but he did have an aura that just screamed 'I know what I'm talking about, listen to me', according to Syuusuke.

"None of them are innocent," replied Yukimura. "Every single one of them deserves death. Look around you, Tezuka. Each and every one of us has suffered due to those narrow-minded fools. Why risk our lives to save these people?"

"And what about children?" spat Kunimitsu, truly angered at Yukimura's uncaring attitude. "What of newborn babies? Have they done anything to spur your hate?"

Yukimura's eyes were cold and unforgiving. "They were born," he hissed.

"In any case, they will only learn from their parents and grow up hating Strangers," Sengoku, Yamabuki House's deputy leader acting as Leader in the absence of their true Leader, Minami, pointed out. "Might as well weed them out now."

"I refuse to accept this verdict," said Kunimitsu stubbornly, glaring around at his peers. "They are innocent."

"I say we take a vote," said Atobe, his eyes and stance unreadable. "All those in favor of leaving the humans to die?"

Almost every Leader raised their hands.

"And those in favor of attempting to fight the Americans?"

Many Mentors and Kunimitsu raised their hands.

"Sorry, Tezuka," said Atobe, sounding detached. "Majority wins."

Kunimitsu ground his teeth in frustration and sighed through his nose. "It's not right," he muttered to himself.

"No," agreed Sumire from beside him. "But we are outnumbered."

Kunimitsu closed his eyes. It wasn't _right_.


	8. Chapter 8

"They are fools," hissed Kunimitsu, truly angered, as he stormed into the house.

Syuusuke was instantly worried. With Kunimitsu's usual temperament, even if he was angry at somebody, he never showed it in front of anyone besides Syuusuke. Kunimitsu… had problems with showing any emotion besides indifference. Even Syuusuke wasn't sure why; probably some sort of psychological thing brought about by the humans.

"What's wrong, Kunimitsu?" asked Syuusuke, his smile dropping immediately.

Kunimitsu shook his head impatiently. Syuusuke wordlessly handed his steaming hot cup of green tea over to Kunimitsu and let the taller man storm up the stairs ill-temperedly.

Ryuuzaki, who had followed Kunimitsu through the door and closed it behind them, sighed. "Hi, Fuji."

Syuusuke's smile returned and he gave Ryuuzaki a deep bow. "It's nice to see you again, Ryuuzaki-sensei," he said. "How was the meeting?"

Ryuuzaki sighed again, this time sounding old and tired instead of exasperated. "Tezuka was right, in a sense. They're being very stubborn and immoral."

Syuusuke tilted his head. "Hmm. I should go talk to him," he said thoughtfully, tapping his chin. "I'll have him out for training in about half an hour or so. The team's been freaking out, so please get them to warm up and get started. Mitsu and I will join you shortly. Excuse me…"

Ryuuzaki shook her head in amazement. "How are you so calm about this situation, Fuji?" she asked in wonderment.

Syuusuke simply chuckled and shrugged. "I've taken in all the facts and have come to the conclusion that I will follow routine until I receive an order from my mentor or my leader to do something. I have faith in you both, and I know that whatever you decide, we will be safe."

Syuusuke looked up, apparently listening to something upstairs. "Hmm. Well, if you'll excuse me, Ryuuzaki-sensei…" He bowed to her once more, then ascended the stairs gracefully.

* * *

Oishi was still pacing the living room worriedly even though he'd been doing that for at least an hour. Eiji was dizzy just watching him and wondered why his feet weren't tired yet. Eijii's tail was waving absently in the air as he and the other members of Seigaku thought about the news Oishi had brought home from Hyoutei House.

It was worrying, really, even though Eiji knew that there was no point in worrying about it. Worrying wasn't going to change the fact that America was going to attack Japan for what seemed to be no apparent reason, and if it didn't change anything it wasn't really worth doing. 'But worry', Eiji thought to himself, frowning and rolling over onto his back, 'is one of those things that can't be controlled, human or Stranger.'

Eiji paused in the middle of rolling over again. 'Well, _some_ Strangers can control worry. Those Strangers that influence feelings. But besides them, worry can't be controlled.' Eiji nodded decisively and finished his roll back onto his stomach, tail waving in the air satisfactorily once again.

"How can you be rolling about and having fun when we're about to be _attacked_?" asked Oishi frantically, throwing his hands in the air to emphasize his point.

Eiji blinked. "Eh? Having fun?"

"Oi, Oishi-san, you've got to calm down," said Momoshiro, whose face had retained a little color since he'd gone white as a sheet an hour ago, when he'd heard the news. "You're making me even more anxious than I was, and you can't do that to me, you just can't!"

Eiji, feeling bored, unconsciously looked over to the right corner of the living room. Taka was sitting on the beanbag there, staring at the white wall across from him in shock. He hadn't moved in over half an hour, and Eiji didn't really know what was going on in his brain, but Inui had said Taka was fine– shocked, yes, but he'd be fine after a little time. Deciding that Taka wasn't going to be waking up from his daze anytime soon, Eiji looked past Taka out at the yard.

Inui was outside having a little sparring session with one of Tezuka's familiars, created to train his team to perfection. (Tezuka always wanted perfection from them. He was Mister Perfect, and so he needed everyone else to be perfect, too.) Eiji could see Inui _moving_ through the glass sliding door, dodging attacks nimbly. Eiji was proud of him, really; Inui, who had been born with long limbs, was still able to pull every appendage out of the way before the light blue projectiles slammed into them.

Eiji, with his short attention span, soon lost interest and let his gaze wander a little more to the left.

Echizen, lounging on an armrest and sipping a grape Ponta, seemed to be completely cool and collected, though he'd been startled briefly when he heard. Well, even Fujiko and Tezuka and Inui had been shocked, so if Echizen wasn't it would have been weird. Speaking of Fujiko, what kind of drink was he making in the kitchen? Maybe it was hot chocolate…!

Eiji sat up and stuck his nose in the air. He didn't smell anything, but maybe he was a little too far from the kitchen to smell it. He hopped off of the couch and landed on all fours, took a brief moment to stretch out his body, then hoisted his weight onto his hands and sprang to his feet from there.

Eiji approached the kitchen, calling out, "Nya, Fujiko, what are you making~?"

"It's tea, Eiji," said Fujiko, emerging from the kitchen and taking a sip from his mug.

Eiji made a face. "Not hot chocolate?" he asked in a whine. "Not even milk?"

Fujiko chuckled. "There's milk in the fridge, Eiji," he said gently. "Why don't you get some yourself?"

Eiji blinked. "Nya. That's a good idea, Fujiko, nya!" Eiji grinned happily at Fujiko, then bounded into the kitchen. Fujiko chuckled, Eiji could hear it, and his light, almost silent footsteps went in the direction of the hall.

Just then, Eiji heard the front door open.

"They are fools," hissed Tezuka. Eiji cocked his head and listened.

* * *

_Oishi-san is really freaking out,_ Takeshi thought, scratching his head. In this case, his empathy was really annoying. He could feel Oishi's anxiety, his worries, his doubts. Though Takeshi didn't know precisely what they were about, he could guess, and Oishi was… a worry-wart, really.

"Hey, what are you boys doing?" demanded a very familiar and welcome voice. Takeshi's head turned around so quickly he was sure he almost got whiplash. Ryuuzaki was standing in the doorway, hands on her hips and glaring sternly – but each and every one of her charges could see the affectionate twinkle in her eye as she gazed at the boys she saw as her kids.

"Baba!" "Ryuuzaki-sensei!" "Ryuuzaki-san!" chorused the boys, surprised.

Eiji pounced on her. Apparently he'd snuck out of the kitchen when nobody was looking. "Welcome home, nya! We missed you, Ryuuzaki-sensei, nya!"

Ryuuzaki almost choked as Eiji attached himself to her back. Oishi rushed over quickly and lifted Eiji off of her easily. "Eiji," he scolded. "She could have died!"

Ryuuzaki seemed slightly offended. "I'm old, but not frail, Oishi," she said, her tone sharp. "Isn't that a little exaggerated?"

Oishi flushed and bowed, his torso parallel to the ground. Takeshi could feel his embarrassment. "S-Sumimasen, sensei," he said. "I was… out of line, and–"

"Apology accepted, Oishi-kun, so rise from that bow already," said Ryuuzaki, cutting him off. "We're a family now, there's no need to be so formal," she said briskly. "Now, it's time for training, so go outside and warm up!"

Inui, who had just stepped through the glass door, smiled bitterly and turned back around.

"No, no, Inui, you come in and have a little rest," said Ryuuzaki. "Why not brew up some of that tea you invented?"

Inui turned around slowly, his glasses glinting in the light. "Penal Tea… yes?" he asked, an evil grin growing on his face. Takeshi shuddered at the pure black aura around the tallest member of the group and immediately went outside to run his warm-up laps, figuring that if he started early, he'd end early and he wouldn't have to drink the horrible, foul-tasting Penal Tea.

The others followed suit almost immediately, and distantly Takeshi though he heard Ryuuzaki chuckling from inside the house. "Works like a charm," he heard her say to Inui. "Every time."

* * *

Syuuichirou ducked under Momoshiro's swipe at his face and threw a punch at the younger boy's abdomen. Momoshiro took the hit in stride and took up a boxing stance.

Eiji and Syuuichirou locked eyes then for maybe half a second, but it was enough. Syuuichirou instantly knew what was happening, what Eiji's plan was, and distanced himself just as Eiji, as a small pink kitten, snuck under Momoshiro's defenses. Eiji moved back into his humanoid form fluidly and threw a high kick right into Momoshiro's face.

Echizen grabbed hold of Eiji's extended leg and degenerated the fur and skin there. The wound was shallow –of course it was, this was _sparring_, after all– but Eiji still hissed and morphed into a cat as Echizen released his leg, landing gracefully on the ground on his feet. Echizen attempted to catch the pink blur as Eiji, despite his wounded leg, quickly bounded up onto Syuuichirou's head.

Syuuichirou distanced himself from their opponents and healed Eiji's leg quickly, then ran right back into the fray, throwing a punch at Momoshiro. Momoshiro moved away, well out of range of the attack, but Eiji, quick as a thief, scampered down Syuuichirou's arm and pounced on Momoshiro's face as Syuuichirou quickly turned and shoved his elbow rather ungracefully at Echizen.

Unfortunately, Momoshiro had apparently seen this coming and caught Eiji around the middle and launched the cat back at Syuuichirou. Syuuichirou saw the pink blur pink blur coming at him and dodged, ducking under the pink projectile.

In a completely unplanned and unexpected but rather brilliant fashion, Echizen, who hadn't seen his partner throwing Eiji at Syuuichirou, jumped up, thinking that Syuuichirou had ducked to do a leg sweep. As a result, the pink blur that was Eiji landed right on his face and, after a brief moment of shock, proceeded to scratch Echizen's face furiously.

Meanwhile, without missing a beat, Oishi decided to do a leg sweep– on Momoshiro. Momoshiro, who had been staring, slack-jawed, at the pink furball on his partner's face, didn't see it coming and fell to the ground with a loud thud. Oishi took the chance to pin him down on the ground solidly and knew that Eiji had done the same with Echizen by the familiar sound of Eiji's shapeshifting and his voice saying triumphantly, "Give it up, Ochibi, we've won!"

"Very good, Oishi, Kikumaru," called Ryuuzaki. "Good teamwork, you two. Momoshiro, Echizen, I think you two are more suited for solitary combat."

"Figures," Syuuichirou heard Echizen mumble. Syuuichirou smiled and got off Momoshiro, offering a hand toward his teammate. "Good match," he said, grinning. Momoshiro grinned back and accepted Syuuichirou's help in getting back on his feet. "Nice move back there, Oishi-san. The fake leg sweep disguised as a duck… Genius."

Syuuichirou laughed sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Actually, that was completely by accident."

Momoshiro's eyebrows raised in what seemed to be disbelief, but quickly turned to awe. "Some accident," he said, laughing. "You got lucky, Oishi-san!"

"Very," agreed Syuuichirou as they made their way off of the sparring field.

"Oishi, Kikumaru!" called Ryuuzaki. "Wait. Stay on the field; you've got another pair to spar with."

Syuuichirou and Eiji shared a confused glance, then turned to see Tezuka and Fuji approaching the field, Tezuka with his usual poker face and Fuji with his usual cheerful smile.

Syuuichirou immediately paled. Tezuka and Fuji were easily the two strongest fighters in their group, with Echizen a close third. But while Echizen and Momoshiro had been defeated despite Echizen's strength and experience, it had been mostly because the two lacked the sort of chemistry a pair required to work well together.

Tezuka and Fuji, however, were best friends even before they were lovers, and, from what Syuuichirou knew, had been close for a long time. Their teamwork, their understanding of what the other was going to do before he actually did it, was remarkable. Uncanny, even.

"Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," said Fuji, bowing. "Don't go easy on us."

Syuuichirou hastily bowed back out of politeness. "S-Same to you, Fuji-kun," he said, rising from his bow. Eiji, beside him, said competitively, "Don't hold back just because we're a new pair, nya."

Tezuka held out his hand to shake. "We never hold back."

Syuuichirou shook, smiling in anticipation of a great battle. Win or lose, it was going to be spectacular.

Sumire checked her stopwatch as the two teams discussed strategy on opposite sides of the field. They had one minute to do so before the match began, and that time was running out fast.

Inui, beside her, clicked his mechanical pencil, ready to scribble data down in his notebook (in that completely illegible handwriting he had). "This will be interesting," he said, adjusting his glasses. "Oishi and Kikumaru are a very good pair, just as we expected, but how well will they hold up against Tezuka and Fuji, whose bond is so strong they seem to have developed a sort of telepathy?"

Ryuuzaki smiled and shrugged. "I guess we'll find out, won't we? Teams ready?" she called out, her voice carrying over to the four teenaged boys on the field.

They settled into position, eyeing their opponents carefully. Ryuuzaki made sure Inui's pencil was poised, then shouted, "FIGHT!"


	9. Chapter 9

Masaharu usually liked to shapeshift into someone else and pretend he was someone he wasn't, but all he wanted was to be home, curled up next to the fire, preferably with Hiroshi and a nice big mug of hot chocolate in his arms.

Instead, he was out here in the biting winter cold, enduring the sleet trying to worm its way into his scarf, tailing a bloody bastard American with Hyoutei's Oshitari. The fact that the two had been tailing him for over three months already but had only gotten very little information about the American attack on Japan was just another slap in the face to Masaharu.

Masaharu had decided to don a girl's appearance today, and he and Oshitari were posing as lovers out on a romantic date to celebrate Christmas. "This is so boring, _boyfriend_," said Masaharu to Oshitari, leaning against the wall as he sighed. "He's not coming out anytime soon. He's celebrating Christmas like a normal person."

Oshitari nodded. "I know, _girlfriend_. I can't believe they're making us work on Christmas Eve."

Masaharu grunted in agreement, shoving his hands in his pockets unhappily. Oshitari sighed. "I miss Gakuto," he said wistfully.

"I miss Hiroshi," Masaharu replied, just as wistful.

"We missed you too," said Mukahi cheerfully, phasing himself and Hiroshi through the wall Masaharu had been leaning on easily.

"Holy crap!" swore Masaharu, jolting away from the wall roughly in a momentary break of character (he _was_ supposed to be a girl here).

"Gakuto!" gasped Oshitari. "What are you doing here?"

Mukahi, who was dressed as a girl for some reason, rolled his eyes. "It's Christmas Eve, doofus! Did you think Yagyuu and I were going to let you guys spend it together posing as lovers?"

Hiroshi, who had seemed slightly disorientated upon his arrival through the wall, had apparently regained his composure. He adjusted his glasses carefully. "I was perfectly fine with the idea," he said coolly. "It was Mukahi that stormed into Rikkai House and dragged me out of the house with strength I was not aware he possessed."

Oshitari wrapped an arm around Mukahi's waist and pulled him close. "Acrobat," he said as if that explained everything. Which, now that Masaharu thought about it, it did.

"Atobe and Yukimura only let us up here on the condition that you stay locked on to the guy's– what's his name? Frank? Yeah– Frank's mind and listen for anything suspicious. Also, if he leaves the apartment, we have to follow him and listen to every conversation he has, but you can get into his mind for that if we can't get near enough.

"But besides those conditions, we've been given free reign!" declared Mukahi, grinning widely. "So c'mon, let's go on a date!"

Masaharu grinned and tilted his head at Hiroshi. "Hey, handsome," he said in his cutesy high school girl voice, locking his hands behind his back. "Want to go out and make it a double date?"

Hiroshi was completely unaffected, just as Masaharu knew he would be. Hiroshi was bi, but he only ever reacted in that sense to people that he genuinely knew and loved. Although Hiroshi did love Masaharu with all of his heart, he was probably too used to Masaharu's behavior to be affected anymore.

"Alright," said Hiroshi with a straight face. "And your name?"

Masaharu smiled wickedly. "My name is Yamashita Misaki. It's very nice to meet you."

"Yagyuu Hiroshi. Pleased to make your acquaintance," Hiroshi replied, taking Masaharu's hand in his.

Masaharu giggled and twittered like a high school girl would, and he could feel his spirits lifting already.

* * *

In the end, the four didn't find out much about Frank. Well, nothing worth anything to their investigation, anyway. They found out that he had three girlfriends and had taken all three of them out on the same day.

The first, a tall, pretty, model-like girl, had been taken to a high-end French bistro, so Oshitari, Gakuto, Yagyuu and Niou had kept an ear out for any interesting info by taking a table right next to Frank's and acting as a normal group of lovesick teenagers.

Fortunately, they were all good actors and pulled it off well. Unfortunately, the only information they got was that Frank was supposed to be very good in bed and rather well off. Also, that Frank had a fetish for cute high school girls, because after his girlfriend had left for a modeling shoot, he'd ambushed Niou coming back from the restroom and tried to grope him.

It was a good thing that he'd chosen to grope Niou and not Gakuto, because Niou, unlike Gakuto, had actually taken the real shape and voice of a teenage girl, and the man wasn't able to grope anything that was usually there in Niou's original form (if you know what I mean) by accident. Niou let loose a convincing ear-piercing shriek and elbowed Frank in the gut, then turned around and kicked him, while wearing stiletto heels, right in the groin.

The bistro's burlier, more morally inclined patrons threw him out and apologized profusely to Niou, who stuck his nose in the air and pretended to be a stuck-up billionaire heiress who was willing to sue the restaurant for this incident. The manager was so apologetic he declared their meal free of charge. Niou, seemingly appeased, relented, and the group of four walked away with full stomachs and wallets to match.

They paused briefly to change clothes in case Frank recognized them. Niou changed his whole appearance, going from brunette with huge green eyes to redhead with stormy blue-gray eyes. "We can claim we're twins going on a double date," he told Gakuto in the girls' bathroom, eyes twinkling. "We can even pull off a stunt or two!"

Gakuto narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. "What kind of stunts?"

Niou grinned mischievously. "Ever watched that shoujo anime, Ouran High School Host Club?"

A similar smile began to spread across Gakuto's face. "The twins? Their act?" he guessed, liking the idea instantly. He always enjoyed making Yuushi jealous because the sex afterwards was mind-blowing and loving and gentle and because he had to get Yuushi back somehow. It was all the quarter-demon's fault that he woke up just about every morning (and lived through the day) with a sore and bruised ass. Yuushi had to get some sort of payback for that.

But, of course, there was absolutely no danger of Gakuto running off with another man, and Yuushi knew that deep down.

Ahem. Anyway…

* * *

The second woman Frank was dating was taken on a horse-drawn carriage ride around Ueno Park, so the four teenagers piled into the next carriage and saw the sights around the park. The sights were beautiful; kids playing in the snow, young couples (just like them except not on an important mission that could give them the information to survive a dangerous attack) being sickeningly sweet and sharing ice cream and scarves on park benches, the Santa Clauses going around greeting kids.

There was one guy they saw that was going up to people and singing Christmas tunes to them in exchange for donations. For some reason, all four of them first mistook him for Seigaku's Leader, Tezuka, but dismissed the notion the moment they saw him grin at the customers. Tezuka barely smirked, let alone gave a full-scale, ear to ear, face-splitting _grin_ like that.

When things got a bit dull, Gakuto decided to share a bit of gossip. "Did you guys know that the Prime Minister of Japan has a gay brother?" he whispered conspiratorially. Homosexuality was a crime punishable by three years hard time (even worse than incest, which was punishable by two years hard time, but better than homosexual incest, the punishment for which was five years hard time) in the human world, and the current Prime Minister was the most anti-homosexual Prime Minister Japan had ever seen.

"The gay brother's husband dresses up as a woman in public to keep the secret," continued Gakuto, eyes sparkling excitedly as he relayed the tale. "They adopted a little girl. Turning six in January. Cute kid."

"How'd you find out about this?" asked Niou.

Gakuto winked mischievously. "I have my ways," he said mysteriously. "The other thing I managed to wheedle out of my informant is that the Prime Minister's wife had a miscarriage."

"Oh," said Oshitari, frowning. "Well, is that good news or bad news?"

"Good news," said Gakuto firmly. "Remember the pregnant bitch that beat Seigaku's Oishi up with an umbrella when he tried to help her up after she fell?"

"Of course," chorused all three boys.

"That's her," said Gakuto, leaning back triumphantly. "The bitch deserved the miscarriage."

"Absolutely," said Oshitari.

"Yes, I agree," said Yagyuu.

"Asshole," said Niou passionately.

Gakuto nodded decisively. "Jirou will be happy to hear that. He rushed over the moment he heard Oishi was hurt and healed the lump up before Oishi could do it himself."

"Did your Leader Atobe get jealous?" Niou asked.

"Duh."

"Yeah. Thought so. That man is whipped."

"We know," said Oshitari and Gakuto in unison. "Oh, we know."

* * *

The third girl, a shy girl with long, pin-straight black hair and the biggest blue eyes any of them had ever seen, seemed no older than seventeen at most, confirming Frank's fetish for high school girls.

"Obviously she has no taste," sniffed Niou disapprovingly. "With a bit of tweaking to her overall look, she could have had her whole goddamn school lusting after her, regardless of gender."

"But instead she goes for that pathetic looking lump of flesh," Gakuto finished with a snort. "Geez. He's not even hot."

"I know. Why don't we make a game out of this? Try guessing her real motive for going out with him," suggested Oshitari, who had already read the girl's mind. "I'll tell you if you're right or wrong."

"I think he's claimed to be rich and she's in the poorhouse, trying to get sufficient money to continue schooling. You know, the whole 'go out with me and I'll help you out' scam," Niou theorized rubbing his chin.

Gakuto shook her head. "No way. Look at that Prada handbag on her arm!"

"Gakuto's right, Niou. She's not a poor girl looking for financial aid," confirmed Oshitari.

"You see?" crowed Gakuto triumphantly. "That isn't a poorhouse girl looking to gold-dig, that's a student thinking she's in love with her Chemistry tutor. You know how it goes: she's quiet and unpopular, he's kind to her despite that, she 'falls in love' with his charm and kindness, blah blah blah."

"Nice try, Gakuto, and I find it fascinating, but no," said Oshitari, obviously amused at his boyfriend's guess.

"Hmm, two down, huh? Well then… what's your theory, Hiroshi?" asked Niou, turning to his boyfriend, who could be very clairvoyant when he wanted to be. Yagyuu tilted his head to one side and adjusted his glasses.

"My theory is that she is hoping to be a model and that Frank, sensing an opportunity, decided to take advantage of her and claimed he's a modeling scout interested in recruiting her."

"And we have a winner!" cried Oshitari. "Congratulations, Yagyuu. How'd you know?"

Yagyuu shrugged. "I saw them meet a few weeks ago when we went to retrieve Hyoutei's newest member. Kabaji, was it?" he added to Oshitari and Gakuto.

"Yup," said Gakuto. "Kabaji. He's like a walking mountain."

"Just as big and just as silent," agreed Oshitari. "He idolizes Atobe for some reason. The only thing he ever says is 'usu'."

"It's kind of annoying," frowned Gakuto. "I wanted to cook something in honor of his coming to Hyoutei House, and when I asked him what he wanted to eat, the only thing he would say was 'usu'."

"Anyway," Niou interrupted. "As you were saying, Hiroshi?"

Yagyuu adjusted his glasses. "Thank you, Masaharu. As I was saying, I saw Frank and that girl, Miyumi, meet a few weeks ago. Frank handed her a fake business card, claiming he was a model scout. She was hooked instantly."

"Man," whined Niou. "That's cheating."

"So doesn't count," agreed Gakuto.

Yagyuu shrugged. "It doesn't really matter to me," he said dismissively. "It looks like they're heading back to Frank's apartment."

"If he tries to rape her, should we stop him?" Gakuto wondered out loud.

There was a tense silence. None of them really wanted to let an innocent (and very gullible, but still innocent nonetheless) girl get raped by an American who planned to conquer Japan.

"We'll help," decided Yagyuu. "But only from the outside. We never show who we are. Deal?"

"Deal," agreed the three other men.

* * *

They didn't save the girl from a rapist that day, which was unexciting, but they did have a wonderful day and a wonderful double date.

They were kind of looking forward to doing it again, but all were hoping that next time Frank wouldn't be involved. That dude just had issues.


	10. Chapter 10

Kaidoh, as his housemates soon found out, was an early riser. He also loved training and fighting a lot more than his new friends. He was a quiet sort, and he had a face so scary it could crack a mirror. The scary face didn't put the residents of Seigaku House off much, though; they never judged on looks or race.

There was something about Kaidoh that fascinated Sadaharu, and Sadaharu was very puzzled as to the reason. The younger boy had never been trained in hand to hand combat– or, well, any sort of combat, really– and wasn't a very quick learner. As such, his form was clumsy and awkward.

He did have some sort of experience in gang fights, though this caused his form to suffer. Gang fighters didn't really care about how one's form could become much more stable by widening the base area (by standing with your feet further apart) and lowering the center of gravity (crouching closer to the ground).

In any case, Kaidoh wasn't a natural fighter, but he was determined and hardworking. Both his stamina and endurance was amazingly high, and he was muscled all over thanks to his hobby: tennis.

It was peculiar, thought Sadaharu one day. Peculiar how almost every Stranger found on the streets in the human world were all so crazy about tennis. Almost as if playing tennis –competitive tennis, it seemed, for the most part– had something to do with the mutant cells in an unawakened Stranger's body activating and causing his or her powers to develop.

But of course, that was all speculation, and Sadaharu had been talking about Kaidoh, not the relationship between mutating Stranger DNA and playing competitive tennis.

Kaidoh joined Sadaharu on his morning run on his fifth day in the house. He had wanted to do so earlier, but refrained because of the wound that Hyoutei's Akutagawa warned him not to aggravate by doing any sort of strenuous physical activity.

Sadaharu was glad for the company; usually his jogs through the tunnels were quiet and made somewhat eerie by the blue fire on the torches in the morning. The fire, Sadaharu had realized, changed color according to the time of day.

In the early morning, the fire was blue. When it was late morning, the fire was a pale yellow. From noon till mid-afternoon, the fire grew slightly bigger in size and burned a bright, almost blinding orange-yellow. With late afternoon came a deeper, dimmer version of the blinding orange-yellow. Slowly, as the sun set, the fire darkened to a deep red-orange. The flame continued to darken until it turned a strangely still luminous purplish black, like an angry bruise. This was the color it maintained for the rest of the night. When dawn approached, the color would lighten to a dark purple, and the cycle would repeat.

Ah. Sadaharu had to stop going off on tangents. It was distracting to others. He had to remember that others were not as organized as he was.

Despite Sadaharu's fondness for the bandana-clad newcomer, Momoshiro did not share the same sentiments. It was something in their first impressions of each other that just rubbed them the wrong way. Kaidoh instantly disliked Momoshiro, and Momoshiro, perhaps in an unconscious response to Kaidoh's dislike, instantly disliked Kaidoh.

What interested Sadaharu was that they were the same age, almost the same height (only a single centimeter's difference– what are the odds?) and had apparently attended the same elementary school, though they had been in different classes and so didn't know of the existence of the other.

Sadaharu was, as always, hungry for new information on everyone and anyone. He blamed this on Renji, who got him started on this data thing in the first place. Hmm, come to think of it, Renji started him on a lot of things in his life. Like tennis and data and being homosexual.

And then Renji had the gall to just ditch him after doing all of that to Sadaharu's life. Bastard.

No. No, Sadaharu was _over_ this. He was. It had been so many years ago.

_But the pain of a first love gone sour was always the most painful_, whispered a voice in Sadaharu's heart. _You still feel the pain of it in your heart, all the time, and you know it. You'll never get over it. Never._

"Inui-san?"

Sadaharu snapped back to reality with a jolt. "Yes, Kaidoh?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

Kaidoh seemed slightly embarrassed and hissed like a snake. "Well, Inui-san, I think… I think we're lost."

Sadaharu blinked in surprise and really took in his surroundings. He'd forgotten that they were on their evening run through the tunnels when he'd lost his focus. Apparently, they were headed in the direction of the Kanagawa prefecture, which was where Rikkai House was.

Where… where Renji was.

"Ah," said Sadaharu out loud by accident. "I see. We've strayed off of our usual path. No matter, Kaidoh, we'll just run a slightly longer route today. Unless you're too tired?"

"No," said Kaidoh hurriedly. "I… I like running."

Sadaharu just had to smile. "I like running, too, Kaidoh."

And somehow, when Kaidoh smiled a small, shy smile back, the perpetual pain in Sadaharu's heart faded away.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kabaji and Ohtori had come home to Hyoutei House with a very interesting item held between them. The two had been out for a walk to familiarize Kabaji with the tunnels and Ohtori was sent to guide him because no one else besides Atobe could stand the unnatural silence that was bound to come with a walk with Kabaji.

(Atobe wasn't sent because, as usual, he and Jirou were holed up in their room doing things that shall not be mentioned here for fear of the rating going up.)

"Whoa!" exclaimed Shishido as Ohtori and Kabaji came into the house holding a blindfolded and gagged human man by the arms between them. The man was dressed in policeman blue and was wearing black armor and a navy blue vest of some sort. "What happened?"

"He tried to attack us," said Ohtori gravely.

"Usu," agreed Kabaji, looking serious. A weapon of some sort floated beside him, glowing purple.

"Huh. Must be one of those special policemen, trained specifically to hunt Stranger down," mused Shishido. "Well, bring him in and we'll see what we can do to get Atobe out of his room to make a cage. You know how he and Jirou get about their alone time."

Ohtori and Kabaji exchanged a glance. "Not to be disrespectful, Ryou-san, but isn't his appearance a little… I don't know… threatening?"

Shishido shrugged. "Not really. He was alone, right? People wander into our tunnels sometimes. Most of the time they get spooked and leave, but occasionally a particularly curious human will find a House, but since Seigaku's Echizen came to stay, it's been a lot easier to deal with. All we have to do is get that cocky little brat to degenerate the guy's memories and release him back into the human world."

"I heard somebody mentioning that short peasant from Seigaku?" Atobe drawled, entering the living room. His eyes sharpened as he took in the situation. "What's going on here?" he asked sharply, frowning. "Who's the human?"

"He tried to attack us, Atobe-san," said Ohtori.

Atobe sighed. "Humans," he said, extending an arm to the ceiling. "So much more trouble than they're worth." He snapped his fingers, causing a sound that seemed to reverberate around the room. A large, circular cage of ice materialized in a corner of the living room, forming slowly and seemingly coming together out of a white powder due to Atobe turning the water vapor in the air into ice.

Ohtori and Kabaji, after brief mental preparation ("On three, Kabaji-san. One, two, THREE!"), hoisted their hostage into the cage through the hole in the top of the cage, which was sealed quickly after.

"Nanya," drawled Oshitari in his Kansai accent, entering through the kitchen. "We have a prisoner, I see?" Gakuto trailed in after him, raising his eyebrows in curiosity.

"Choutarou and Kabaji were attacked," said Shishido by way of explanation. The human tried to say something and failed thanks to the gag.

"What?" asked Oshitari, feigning annoyance. "You'll have to speak up, I can't hear you," he said mockingly, raising a hand in the human's direction. His hand glowed navy blue, as did the blindfold and gag, and as he curled his fingers into a fist, the blindfold and gag floated towards him.

"I said," spat the human, glaring at them in hate, "that they attacked me first!"

"Bullshit," said Shishido immediately, glaring back. "They're two of the most gentle people I've ever met! Why the hell would they attack you?"

"Not them," said the human, still looking very murderous. "Their kind. Your kind."

"Oh, for God's sake," Gakuto burst out, laughing humorlessly. "You think all of us are evil because some rogue Stranger decimated your town? Why don't you stop and consider that maybe he had a good reason for doing so!"

"For your information, my father was killed by a Stranger," snarled the human. "What good reason could there possibly have been to kill an innocent man?"

"What good reason could there possibly be to kill an innocent Stranger?" Hiyoshi challenged as he looked down over the living room, leaning on the banister on the second floor. "Neither Ohtori nor Kabaji did you any harm, yet you assaulted them. Why?"

"A Stranger is unstable," the human began, but was cut off immediately.

"And what proof do you have of that?" challenged Oshitari, eyes cold. "You only saw one Stranger kill your father. Perhaps your father had tried to hunt him down, to put him behind bars for no reason besides his race."

"You say we are all unstable because the few Strangers you've heard about killed humans," said Taki quietly, walking down the stairs slowly. "Some humans are rapists and thugs and thieves. Does that mean that all humans are rapists and thugs and thieves?"

These words seemed to strike a chord within the human's heart. He appeared to be taken aback for a few moments, but soon regained his composure. "Th-that's different. Killing is in your blood, Strangers! Crime is not in ours."

"Killing is in our blood?" Jirou repeated mockingly, emerging through the same doorway Atobe had come in from. "And why do you say that? What proof do you have?"

The human fell silent, and the whole House stared daggers into him.

"Leave him," ordered a calm, authoritative voice as its owner stepped into the room.

"Kantoku," the boys murmured in greeting, bowing.

"He's just had his entire world's view challenged. Leave him be and let him rest. We are not a gang, nor are we heartless, and as such we will show compassion to him," said Sakaki, to general dislike.

"But Kantoku," Shishido protested. "He's a human! He'd have treated us like dirt, so why should we treat him any better?"

"Because sometimes it's about walking the higher road, Shishido," snapped Atobe.

"If we treated him like dirt, the notion that we are heartless, cruel beasts would be reinforced," said Sakaki. "We aren't. We're better people than that."

"He's not going to remember this anyway, Kantoku," argued Gakuto. "What's the point of convincing him that we're not as bad as we seem?"

"Because if he believes us, we might not have to wipe him," said Hiyoshi. "Power is precious. Since this guy is down here, it could be possible that his friends will follow him and attack us. This can happen at any moment, and we'll need every drop of power we have if that weapon Kabaji's holding is any indicator."

All attention was turned to the gun-like weapon.

"Well," said Oshitari. "This is unfortunate."

"What?" asked Gakuto.

"The human has received mental training, for one, and can sense the probe I sent into his mind. I did pick up some basic information besides that, though. His name is Izumi, and he's 36 years old."

"Shut up," growled Izumi. "If I were out there with my gun you wouldn't be so cocky!"

"Fortunately," continued Oshitari, completely ignoring him. "He's not the only one who understands this weapon. Kabaji has determined that this gun shoots lasers, and there are three possible settings for the laser.

"The first is non-lethal, to be used on children and the elderly, who offer minimal resistance. The second is mildly dangerous, to be used on normal Strangers, though someone like Gakuto would be able to turn intangible and allow the ray to go right through him.

"The third is fatal and cannot be phased through. Once the laser touches you, your powers shut down, as do your organs. If they don't administer the antidote within half an hour after that, you die, simple as that."

There was a tense silence between the House members. It was a dangerous weapon, and if a whole army of humans was armed with those, well, the Strangers had less of a fighting chance.

"Kabaji, take it apart," ordered Atobe.

"Usu," said Kabaji, and the wepon dismantled in a matter of seconds. Then it reassembled to form something else altogether.

"What's that, Kabaji-san?" asked Ohtori curiously.

"By God, this man's a genius!" cried Oshitari. "He's made a coffee maker! God knows how much we need one of these."

Kabaji seemed embarrassed and ducked his head shyly.

The tension was broken, and all the boys started cheering. Even Sakaki couldn't resist cracking a smile.


	11. Chapter 11

Yukimura stepped into Hyoutei House gracefully.

"Good morning, Taki-kun," Yukimura greeted politely. "I hear you have a human prisoner here?"

Taki raised his eyebrows. "Has word really travelled that fast?" he wondered out loud. "He only got here like two nights ago."

Yukimura smiled. "When you have telepathy, rumors spread like wildfire."

Taki shrugged. "I suppose that makes sense. Ohtori's just giving him his breakfast, come on in and have a look."

Yukimura frowned. Breakfast? This human should be killed, or at least made to suffer. Why give him… breakfast?

"Ah, Yukimura," greeted Keigo as he stepped into the living room, passing Ohtori who was on his way back to the kitchen. "You heard about our human friend?"

Yukimura arched a thin eyebrow. "Friend, Atobe-kun? I want to know why you are treating him so well."

Keigo put a hand on his hip. "We are not savage beasts, Yukimura. We are Hyoutei House, and we will not treat him like he isn't worth our time."

"He's isn't worth your time," said Yukimura. "Why not kill him and be done with it? You're only wasting your time and effort by keeping him alive, not to mention your sparse funds."

"Look at his face, Yukimura," snarled Keigo, pointing his index finger at Izumi. Izumi was quietly chewing on a piece of toast, regarding the Strangers calmly.

"The first night he was brought here, he was glaring at everybody hatefully. Now… look at him. He clearly believes that we aren't as bad as the media makes us out to be. This isn't the sort of reaction you get from brutally murdering humans!"

"They have caused us suffering," growled Yukimura, angered. "Why do you still protest the murder of humans?"

"Because if we kill the entire human race for something a few individuals did, we will be just as bad as those who leave us to die just because a few Strangers have killed humans before!" roared Keigo, frustrated at Yukimura's stubbornness.

There was a tense silence. Yukimura had lowered his head so that his face wasn't visible. Keigo was glaring at Yukimura.

Then Keigo sighed. "I don't want to fight with you, Yukimura," he said wearily. "I don't care if you and I have different opinions, but this human was found by members of my House, and as such is under my jurisdiction, so please allow me to contain him in the way that I see fit."

"Just… one more question, Atobe-kun," said Yukimura, smiling pleasantly.

Keigo didn't trust that smile. "What?"

"Why have you yet to wipe his memories and send him to the surface?"

Keigo breathed a sigh of relief. Ready as he was to fight Yukimura, the battle would have been tough. While Keigo's power over ice was strong, Yukimura was a sponge, and had at least eighty Stranger powers in his arsenal that he could use at will.

"That is easily explained," said Keigo. "Echizen has been wounded badly in an accident and has been put into a magically induced coma to speed up the healing process. He will be completely healed by tomorrow, and will wipe this human's memory then."

Yukimura frowned. "Accident? In training?"

"No, tennis. He somehow managed to hit himself in the eye with a broken tennis racket while playing a match with Fudomine House," explained Keigo, recalling the information Tezuka had given him. "He continued to play and won the match despite his bleeding eye, in case you wanted to know."

"But is it really necessary to put him in a magically induced coma just to heal his eye?"

"He also managed to slip and fall during Seigaku's hike up Survival Mountain. He tumbled a quarter of the way down the mountain before someone managed to stop him."

"Survival Mountain…?" asked Yukimura, curious.

"Yes. It's been a Seigaku tradition to go up there for training every year. What they do up there is a mystery to everyone else."

"I'll get Renji on it," said Yukimura, smiling. "I am intrigued by this special Survival Mountain training."

"Yo, Yukimura," greeted Shishido as he poked his head into the room. "Nice to see you. Atobe, I'm going to start morning practice. Come join us once you're ready. Don't take too long or Jirou'll have your head. You know how impatient he gets waiting for you to play with him."

Keigo nodded. "Ah, I understand. Go on ahead." Shishido nodded, bowed at them both, and left.

Yukimura tilted his head and smiled. "I suppose I should be leaving now," he said. "I assume you're playing tennis this morning?"

"Yes," said Keigo, without offering further explanation.

"Goodbye," said Yukimura, a white bubble materializing around him.

"Goodbye," said Keigo out of politeness. The bubble disappeared with a slight shimmer, and Keigo rolled his eyes. "And good riddance."

* * *

"Something bad is going to happen," said Fuji suddenly, his eyes flying open and unintentionally immobilizing several of his teammates.

"You have to be careful with where you look, Fuji," scolded Oishi lightly. "Echizen's not around to fix the damage, either."

"Ah, gomen," said Fuji to the statues of Momoshiro, Kaidoh and Kawamura. "I didn't mean it."

"Nya, Fujiko!" said Kikumaru worriedly. "What's the bad thing that's going to happen?"

Fuji shook his head. "I don't know, but it's big. Maybe my sister knows."

"Your sister?" asked Oishi, frowning.

"Fuji Yumiko, age 27, 165cm. Possesses foresight, the ability to see ghosts and other psychic related powers. She is currently helping Ryuuzaki-sensei manage the female Seigaku House due to Ryuuzaki-sensei's absence," said Inui, referring to his notebook. "Is known for being a bit of a heartbreaker and is extremely beautiful. Has been in twelve unsuccessful relationships in the past two years, two of which were with humans. Her preferred type of man appears to be of the humorous type. She likes dogs better than cats and is extremely overprotective of her little brothers."

Fuji tilted his head, somehow making the innocent gesture seem evil. "I thought you were gay, Inui," he said dangerously. "Why the interest in my sister…?"

Inui backed away, sweatdropping. "This is just professional interest, Fuji," he said, attempting to calm Fuji. He knew that all three of the Fuji siblings were extremely protective of their siblings, even if Yuuta was reluctant to show it. "For the sake of collecting data. You understand, Fuji."

"Hmm," said Fuji, looking unamused. "Another day, you and I will take a trip to Rokkaku House to visit Saeki. Then we'll see if you really have nothing but professional interest for my sister."

Inui nodded slowly. He wasn't scared. He wasn't lying, and Rokkaku's Saeki was an unbiased lie detector. There was no need for Inui to be scared.

"Right now, I want to go see my sister. Mitsu, do you want to come along?" asked Fuji.

Tezuka nodded. "Yes. I promised I'd check on Ryuuzaki-sensei's granddaughter for her." Ryuuzaki-sensei was out again for the tournament– apparently her boys were doing well in their matches. Ryuuzaki had promised to bring Seigaku House along to watch them if they made it to Nationals, too, but that was irrelevant.

"Alright. Let's go," said Fuji.

"Aa."

* * *

The female Seigaku House was very nice-smelling, an adjective neither Syuusuke nor Kunimitsu was used to associating with any House. When there were nine boys living in the same house, there was no way the house could smell good.

"Nee-san," Syuusuke greeted his sister, Yumiko, who was indeed a beautiful woman. Kunimitsu noted that Syuusuke was the only child in his family that had blue eyes; both his sister and brother had light gray eyes. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Syuusuke!" exclaimed his sister in return, dropping her feather duster to give him a big hug. "I knew you'd be showing up today. The cards are never wrong."

Syuusuke chuckled and hugged his sister back. "I actually came to do a reading, nee-san."

Yumiko released her brother and smiled. "I know," she said with a sigh. "Don't you ever come by just to say hello?"

Syuusuke laughed. "Next time, nee-san, I promise."

Yumiko placed a hand on her hip and smiled. "All right, I suppose I'll have to accept that. It's nice to meet you, Tezuka Kunimitsu-kun," she added to Kunimitsu, winking. "Good job taking care of my brother, young man. Keep it up."

Kunimitsu bowed. "I will. It's nice to meet you too, Fuji-san."

Yumiko, who had picked up her feather duster, waved it at him. "Call me Yumiko," she almost ordered, grinning at him in a way that reminded him of Syuusuke. Kunimitsu figured that it made sense, considering she was Syuusuke's older sister and all.

"Come on in, you two," she said, moving aside to let them through. "How's the little one doing? Echizen Ryoma?"

"He seems to be doing well enough. We have to thank Sakuno-san ," added Syuusuke thoughtfully. "She was the only reason he didn't squirm around as much as he might have."

"Don't you mean that it's mostly her power that's healing him right now?" asked Kunimitsu, blinking.

Syuusuke sighed. "Don't you understand the relationship that those two share, Mitsu? You know our little Ryo-chan is growing into a perfectly fine and heterosexual young man. Quite strange, really, considering the fact that he's been in Seigaku House with us for years without seeing very many females at all…" Syuusuke drifted off into a musing silence.

Yumiko, ahead of them, chuckled. "Their fates are intertwined, Syuusuke," she said sagely. "Even if he had turned homosexual, he would have fallen for her anyway. In every world in which they both exist, they have met and fallen in love. Or," she smiled knowingly, "they will, eventually."

"Well, what do you know," said Syuusuke. "Fated to be together. Not very many couples are like that, huh, nee-san?"

"No," said Yumiko. "I've only seen three in my lifetime."

_Fate, _thought Kunimitsu, _is something that is quite unpredictable._

* * *

They'd settled into Yumiko's tarot-reading room and were watching her shuffle the cards.

"So, why exactly do you need a reading, Syuusuke?" she asked casually, shuffling the cards expertly without even looking. Kunimitsu was amazed, though his face couldn't possibly have told you that.

"I feel like something bad is going to happen, nee-san," said Syuusuke with a smiling face. "And Kunimitsu is impressed with your shuffling skills."

Okay, Kunimitsu had to rephrase that: his face couldn't possibly have told you that he was amazed unless you were Fuji Syuusuke.

Yumiko smiled at him brightly. "Thank you, Tezuka-kun! It's very kind of you."

She proceeded to take the three top cards and lay it out in front of her.

"Are you ready?" she asked them, fingering the first card. "I should warn you that this reading will not necessarily reveal the information that we need. The gods only reveal as much as they wish to. It could very well be information about your love life."

"Well," said Syuusuke jokingly, "that would be useful as well."

Yumiko laughed, then turned over the first card. "Ah, the Hanged Man," she said. "He's right way up, so that means we're taking the upright meaning. The Hanged Man represents devotion to a worthwhile cause. Temporary suspension of progress. Flexibility of mind and a willingness to adapt to changes. A waiting period. Rebirth. Sacrificing one thing to obtain another. Transformation. Circumstances literally turned on their head," read Yumiko from a book.

If Kunimitsu had been the kind of person to sweatdrop, he would have done so right then and there.

"N-Nee-san," Syuusuke began, actually sweatdropping. "You have to read the divination from a book?"

Yumiko either didn't hear him or completely ignored him. "Something tells me that the Hanged Man symbolizes sacrifice this time. I don't know who or what will be sacrificed, but don't worry. The sacrifice will be for the greater good," she said firmly. "I know it."

Syuusuke's smile had dropped slightly. "Thanks, nee-san," he said, gripping Kunimitsu's hand tightly under the table. "What about the next card?"

Yumiko turned over the next card. "Hmm. The Wheel of Fortune," she said, frowning. "It's upside down, so we have to take the reverse meaning. Let's see… Wheel of Fortune…" She ran a finger down the contents page, searching for the correct page.

"Ah, here we are. Bad luck that is unexpected. Resistance to change. Unexpected interruptions. A warning against gambling. Difficulties. Delays." She looked up, frowning. "Bad luck that is unexpected is what it means this time around. Hmm… it doesn't feel like it's a small thing. Be careful, Syuusuke. You too, Tezuka-kun."

"Aa," said Syuusuke, sounding positively grave now. "And the last card?"

Yumiko turned it over and tilted her head. "The Tower, upright, okay…"

She flipped a few pages of her book, then read, "Disruption. Conflict. Change. Sudden violent loss. Overthrow of an existing way of life. Major changes. Disruption of well worn routines. Ruin and disturbance. Dramatic upheaval. change of residence or job sometimes both at once. Widespread repercussions of actions. In the end, enlightenment and freedom."

"It's not just a single one of those explanations, is it, nee-san?" asked Syuusuke quietly. Something in his eyes had changed, and Kunimitsu knew that he could feel the cards and the spirits and the gods as well as his sister could at that very moment.

"You can feel it, ne, Syuusuke?" Yumiko asked quietly, tilting her head. "This card's aura is powerful. Most of these explanations are true whereas only one was true in the other two cards. You have to be careful, Syuusuke. And… be ready for a betrayal, or a change of character. Be ready for a fight, too," she added, frowning. "I have a feeling you might have to do battle."

Syuusuke stood, no trace of a smile on his face at all. "Yes, nee-san. I will."


	12. Chapter 12

It was night time, and Hyoutei House was lounging about, having a late night as teenagers generally do. Sakaki had gone to sleep for the night, but the Hyoutei boys were still up.

"BULLSHIT!" cried Gakuto triumphantly, pointing at Shishido accusingly.

"Damn," said Shishido, gathering the cards in the middle of the table and adding it to his hand.

Izumi, who had surprisingly decided to join them, laid down four cards and said, "Four Kings." He'd only been allowed out of his cage on the condition that Oshitari was allowed into his brain and the tracking chip (which Kabaji had made out of little pieces of shrapnel he'd found lying about somewhere) was inserted under his skin.

"Bullshit," called Shishido, sure that there was no possible way Izumi could have all four Kings.

Izumi turned the cards over. All four were Kings.

"Damn it!" swore Shishido, picking the four cards up and adding them to his hand. "I'm just not lucky today, am I?" he grumbled to himself.

"No, no you're not," said Gakuto smugly, laying down three cards. "Three Aces."

"Bullshit," said Oshitari calmly.

"Ah, crap," grumbled Gakuto. "But I suppose I shouldn't expect Yuushi to fall for my lie."

"Of course not," said Oshitari, laying down a lone card. "I know you better than you know yourself. One Jack."

Shishido put three cards down. "Three Queens."

"Bullshit," said Izumi quietly.

"Bugger."

On the other side of the room, Jirou was napping on Atobe's lap on the loveseat. Atobe himself was wearing his reading glasses, reading a thick and boring-looking novel. Atobe's hand was absently threading through Jirou's thick curls, gently working out the tangles when he found them.

Beside them, Taki was curled up next to Hiyoshi on the sofa, watching TV. It was some sort of American drama. Taki liked to watch them, and Hiyoshi liked Taki, so it was a chain effect that eventually cause Hiyoshi to become somewhat addicted to these American dramas, much more so than Taki, the person who got Hiyoshi started on it in the first place.

Ohtori was sitting on the floor in front of them, folding paper cranes at the coffee table and tossing them into a box by his side. He had about nine hundred and eighty-five cranes already; only fifteen more to go.

Kabaji was fiddling with an old broken radio he had found in a spare room. He had dismantled the entire thing and was putting it back together in a completely different way.

All of a sudden, Jirou's eyes blinked open. "Ne, Keigo," he said quietly, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Three hundred."

"What?" asked Atobe, mystified.

Jirou shook his head. "I don't know, but I think it'll make sense soon. Three hundred. That's what the pretty lady in my dream told me. 'Three hundred' and 'you'll need help'."

Atobe frowned. "Help? For what?"

Meanwhile, Ohtori was about to drop his thousandth crane into the box when Oshitari stood suddenly. "Get out!" he yelled. "The police! They've come to attack us!"

"How did they find us?" demanded Atobe, throwing off his reading glasses and boring-looking novel. Jirou rolled off of his lap and landed in an ungraceful heap on the ground, but quickly stood and made his way to the door.

"They sent me down as an experiment," said Izumi, eyes frightful. "T-They said that they wouldn't attack until a w-week had passed w-without me surfacing! I- I was going to go back to the surface and tell them that there was n-nothing in the tunnels, I s-swear!"

"He's telling the truth," said Oshitari, slipping on his shoes and hurrying out of the house. His housemates and Izumi followed suit quickly.

"Somebody get Sakaki-kantoku out of there now!" ordered Atobe. "Gakuto, how far away are they?"

Gakuto scanned the area with his x-ray vision. "About ten minutes away, Atobe," he hissed nervously. "What do we do?"

Sakaki came running out, his pajamas clearly visible under his brown velvet bathrobe. "How many?" he asked sharply for someone who'd just gotten out of bed.

Gakuto shook his head. "At least a hundred. I don't know precisely."

"_Three hundred_," breathed Jirou, eyes wide. "_'You'll need help_.'"

"We need help," growled Atobe, remembering Jirou's strange dream. "Yes. Shishido! Go and bring Seigaku House here to help us. Take Taki with you."

"You're crazy!" cried Izumi. "You can't fight them; they outnumber you by so many! Fighting them will be suicide!"

"Izumi-san," said Sakaki gravely. "You don't understand."

"This… is our home, Izumi-san," said Ohtori, his face completely serious. "This is the home that took us in when none of us had anywhere else to go. This is where we've lived the greatest years of our lives, and we will save it or die trying."

There was a silence.

"That… was a pretty inspirational speech, Choutarou," said Shishido, grinning at him. "I'm actually a little moved. Come on, Taki! We've got reinforcements to call."

Taki saluted mockingly. "Yes, sir, Shishido-taichou, sir."

Shishido pulled a face at him, and they both disappeared in a shower of sparkles.

"They're still gay," murmured Gakuto, whose eyes were still following the army.

"Well, Shishido himself is gay, so they're quite fitting, aren't they?" Oshitari pointed out, taking hold of Izumi's arm. "Come here, Izumi-san. You're a good person, I think, but once they find out you've switched sides, they'll kill you. You know that. So go on into the house and you can watch the battle from the second floor where it's safe."

"And if they destroy the house?" Izumi whispered fearfully.

Oshitari smiled bitterly. "Well, you were going to be killed anyway," he said nonchalantly. "Stay here. Jirou's going to put up an illusion so that the house doesn't seem to be there, so they won't see you."

Oshitari turned to leave, but Izumi found himself saying, "W-What if you don't win?"

"We'll win, Izumi-san," said Atobe's voice from below confidently– rather arrogantly, actually. "You think a mere three hundred trained professionals can take down twenty Strangers?"

Izumi opened his mouth to answer 'Yes, yes I do think so,', but the words wouldn't come. Something in his heart knew that Hyoutei House would come out victorious.

No matter the cost.

* * *

_It's really amazing_, thought Izumi in awe, _how these teenagers are taking down these professionally trained soldiers so easily when they were only informed of the battle ten minutes ago._

'_You have to understand, Izumi-san,_' said Oshitari's voice in his head, _'that while they have been training against simulators and other humans for a long time, we have been training to fight with other Strangers, who are frankly a lot more threatening than humans. No offense.'_

_'None taken,' _said Izumi in reply. Inwardly he wondered how Oshitari could respond so calmly even though he was in the middle of a fight with three men at the same time.

_'Actually,'_ said Oshitari again. _'I'm also in the minds of four others, not including you. They're slowly losing their sanity…'_

Izumi was slightly worried at this. Apparently, Oshitari sensed this and said, _'Oh, don't worry, Izumi-san, it's nothing a few sessions with a good therapist can't cure. Now, if you'll excuse me…'_

Yuushi threw a vicious punch at a soldier who had been aiming his gun at Gakuto. "It's not nice to sneak up on people, you know," he told the man, who was out cold. Oh. Yuushi hadn't realized. Speaking to an unconscious person was rather silly, wasn't it?

"Yuushi, look out!"

Gakuto quickly latched onto Yuushi and turned them both intangible just as a yellow beam fired from a soldier's gun and passed harmlessly through the two. Suddenly, the weapon, along with dozens of others, glowed purple and dismantled, floating through the air lightning fast to gather at Kabaji's feet. It was a bonus that some of the pieces hit several men in several places as they did so.

"Thanks, Kabaji!" called Gakuto over his shoulder at Kabaji, who was fighting next to Atobe and Jirou. "I owe you one!"

"Usu," said Kabaji, looking pleased with himself. Yuushi figured that he hadn't received much praise as a child–

"Yuushi, you have to focus!" screamed Gakuto in his ear as the short redhead pulled Yuushi's head down to avoid a punch and punched the attacker in the groin.

"Sorry," grunted Yuushi, rising and reaching over Gakuto's head to deliver a punch to the man attempting to kick his boyfriend in the head. "Don't touch him, you asshole," growled Yuushi. "Or I swear you will die early."

"I'm touched, Yuushi," said Gakuto, panting as he nimbly avoided another attack. "But less talk and more fighting!"

In the middle of it all, ten Strangers materialized in a shower of sparkles.

"Ryou, your sparkles are gay!" shouted Gakuto. Ryou gave him the Finger for his troubles.

"Took you long enough, Ryou!" cried Jirou, ducking under a human's punch and delivering a swift and effective punch to his gut.

"Just fight, Jirou!" said Ryou in return, leaping into the fray easily.

"Seigaku House, go!" commanded Tezuka, and the team cheered an affirmative before leaping into action.

Eiji bounded over to Gakuto's side and pounced on the soldier attempting to swipe at Gakuto's head.

"Be careful, nya!" he admonished the other redhead, scratching the human's face thoroughly before leaping off. Gakuto spun around and punched another soldier through Eiji's body. "Speak for yourself, neko!" he said, scowling. "Why are you here fighting next to me?"

Eiji grinned and elbowed a soldier behind him in the gut without even looking. "Because you and I together can pull off some pretty moves that they'll never see coming, nya! What do you say? Truce?"

Gakuto ducked under a soldier's kick and went through his legs, coming up behind him and knocking the man out with a quick blow to the head. "Yeah, sure," he grunted. "Why not? What did you have in mind?"

Eiji grinned and winked at his new friend. "Follow my lead, nya!"

Eiji spun around and flipped a soldier over his head quickly and easily. Taking the cue, Gakuto jumped into the air and did a somersault, timing it in such a way that his foot connected with the underside of the humans jaw and made the human's body follow the arc of Gakuto's foot– all the way to the hard, unforgiving ground.

"Nice," said Eiji, giving Gakuto a thumbs up. "Couldn't have pulled it off with anyone besides you." Because no one else could do that sort of acrobatic work; only Kikumaru Eiji and Mukahi Gakuto could have possibly achieved an attack so flashy.

"Fine," said Gakuto, smiling grudgingly. "This might work."

"Of course it will," said Eiji confidently, and the two redheads fought back to back.

* * *

Atobe had smiled smugly the moment reinforcements arrived. "Taki," he called over the heads of many humans as he sent a slab of ice slamming into several soldiers. "Come here!"

Taki obliged with slight protest ("I'm not your dog, you know!"), and Atobe raised his hand to the sky (well, ceiling, really, since they were underground and all) and snapped.

Immediately, all the soldiers standing before him were frozen solid in thick, unmelting ice.

"Be awed at my prowess, Tezuka," said Atobe smugly, grinning as he made his way through ice sculptures to another section. Kunimitsu rolled his eyes and continued throwing translucent blue balls of energy (not that kind of blue balls at his opponents like a machine gun.

"Ne, Mitsu, maybe you should slow down," said Syuusuke calmly, as if they were in completely no danger. "We wouldn't want your arm to act up again."

A distant area of Kunimitsu's mind thought that it wasn't fair that Kunimitsu risked the injury of his arm while Syuusuke was walking around with what could be classified as a lethal weapon _on his face_. Outwardly, Kunimitsu said wryly, "We have Oishi and Akutagawa on scene. I think I'll be all right." He punched a soldier that had somehow slipped past his barrage of (pinpoint accurate) energy (probably while Syuusuke had distracted him) right in the face, drawing blood and loosening a few teeth.

"Ow," said Kunimitsu flatly, flicking the teeth off of his fist. He wasn't really worried about the oncoming soldiers; all Syuusuke had to do was look them in the eye.

As if Syuusuke had heard his thoughts, the smaller boy opened his eyes and called, in his best seductive voice, "Hey, look over here."

As always, the men turned and looked despite knowing that Syuusuke wasn't really a seductive woman looking for some fun (and that they couldn't enjoy her in the middle of a huge battle like this) and were instantly immobilized.

"That's disgusting," said Syuusuke, nodding at Kunimitsu's bloody fist, not sounding disgusted in the slightest.

Ignoring him, Kunimitsu called to Atobe, "Oi, Atobe! Freeze them when you find the time."

Atobe glanced at him as he performed a nice roundhouse kick. "All right, Tezuka," he said, snapping his fingers and turning the soldiers into solid ice statues. "But only because we're friends!"

Kunimitsu had the childish urge to stick his tongue out at Atobe, but resisted. "Come on, Mitsu," said Syuusuke with his usual smile. "Let's get going."

Kunimitsu nodded. "Aa."

* * *

Jirou had never felt more alive. He'd never known that screwing with people's heads could be so much _fun_! So this was why Fuji and Yukimura and Niou liked it so much…

Huh. Who'd have imagined?

Jirou was holding the illusion for the house, so he had to be near it in order to keep the humans from discovering the trick. It helped that Shishido had cast a shield over the house.

At the moment, he was weaving an illusion in the minds of approximately thirty men. They were seeing themselves in a field of dark, wilted grass and a few barren trees.

"_Come and find me,"_ whispered Jirou to them, the illusion tricking their senses into believing that the voice came from everywhere at once. Jirou grinned deviously and created monsters where their comrades should be. He then sat back and watched as they beat the crap out of each other.

A little while of this had Jirou quite amused. One of the soldiers was half-dead from the beatings he'd gotten from his comrade who was screaming about his mother and how much he'd hated her. Jirou had to blink at that. Didn't people usually love their mothers?

"Jirou!" admonished Keigo as he ran past. "Stop toying with them! Be done with them and move on!"

Jirou pouted. "You're no fun, Kei-chan!" he called after Keigo, just for the record and also to embarrass Keigo with the cutesy nickname. It worked wonderfully ("_Kei-chan_?" guffawed Gakuto and Ryou. Even Tezuka was smirking, Jirou saw it!), but Jirou obeyed the command of his Leader and reluctantly let the soldiers see the real world again.

Thankfully, most were too tired to continue fighting. The few that weren't were quickly dealt with by Jirou's clumsy yet effective fighting style. It was a trademark of Jirou's; he'd fight clumsily, as if the forms he fell into were by accident, but in hindsight it was the best thing Jirou could have done. The enemy never saw him coming until his fists slammed into their jaws.

Despite Jirou's excellent fighting, more soldiers just replaced their fallen comrades. Jirou made a face and sighed. Time to repeat the process all over again.

"GREAT-O!" bellowed Kawamura passionately. "COME ON! Take your time, Kabaji; I could do this all night!"

Brandishing a large club that he must have gotten from Inui (who was the person with hammerspace), Kawamura was protecting Munehiro as he assembled a weapon out of the parts he had collected from the human army sent to decimate them. Kawamura was felling soldiers left and right, his club an arc of destruction.

Munehiro was truly grateful for his help and protection, and resolved to return the favor. Doing his best to grin evilly (his face wasn't _built_ for emotion, and he knew it), Munehiro turned around with his new weapon.

"Kawamura," he said by way of warning. "Duck."

While Kawamura was completely different while holding a club, he was still sensible enough to throw himself onto the ground the moment he saw the large, bazooka-like weapon in Munehiro's arms. Munehiro took aim, thought dramatically, 'Hasta la vista, baby,' and pulled the trigger.

A huge white flash of energy shot over Kawamura's head and blasted a clear path through the sea of soldiers, stunning everyone it came into contact with. Bodies crumpled everywhere, and Munehiro nodded satisfactorily. It had worked just as it was supposed to.

"Oi!" yelled Momoshiro. "Be careful where you aim that thing! You just knocked Kaidoh and Taki out!"

Oishi quickly darted over and pulled the two to their feet, healing them and causing their bodies to glow green as he did so. Munehiro had seen many healings in his month with Hyoutei House, but he still hadn't gotten used to the beauty, the magic of it. To be able to heal injuries of all sorts in such a short time…

What Munehiro would have given to have that power when his brother was in the hospital.

But, of course, now wasn't the time to be reminiscing about the past.

Kawamura, who had apparently dropped his club at some point of time, rose, blinking at Munehiro. "Ah, I suppose we should be moving on to a different area, ne, Kabaji?"

"Usu," said Munehiro.

"Ah, okay, then. Um… have you seen my club around?" he asked sheepishly. "I know it's kind of unprofessional to drop my weapon in the middle of a fight and all, but…"

Munehiro gestured for Kawamura to duck again (he did), then fired a shot, although a more concentrated one, into the chest of the solder attempting to sneak up on them.

"Oh," said Kawamura in a small voice. "Thank you, Kabaji."

Munehiro nodded and offered Kawamura's club out to him.

"Ah, thank you, Kaba– AAHHH! MOERUZE, BURNING!" roared Kawamura, the fire back in his eyes. Munehiro wanted to laugh because Kawamura was just _so weird_, but refrained because Kawamura had already left and might get himself killed without someone there to make sure his back was covered.

Yeah, Munehiro could get used to living in this world.

* * *

Ryou was losing power– _fast_. In the beginning, he and Choutarou had been rocking it, their usual teamwork holding up well and allowing them to attack or defend as the situation required without batting an eyelid. But the effort of holding the shield around the house as well as keeping focus on the battle around him and making sure to put up a forcefield the moment they were even in remote danger was wearing Ryou out.

It didn't help that Jirou was also tiring, and with him, the illusion around the house. Originally, the illusion had been so strong that there was absolutely no sign of a house being there at all; just a small doghouse in a dead end. Now, the illusion was wavering, and occasionally, little flickers of the truth could be seen.

Choutarou wasn't nearly as tired as Ryou was, perhaps due to the fact that he wasn't focusing his attention elsewhere, and was desperately doing his best to keep Ryou safe. Ryou had never seen Choutarou slip in and out of his animal forms so fast.

"Shishido!" called Taki, tossing a sheathed _tantou_ at him. Ryou caught it easily; it had more to do with the fact that Taki's throw was beautiful and less to do with Ryou's ability as a catcher. "Thanks, Taki!" Ryou shouted back, knowing that Hiyoshi had sensed the decrease in Ryou's power and sent Taki over.

(Taki had hammerspace, which meant that he could carry a certain number of things around with him all the time. Mainly, just like every other teenage Stranger with hammerspace, he was like the team's walking armory, with weapons of every sort imaginable stowed away in his hammerspace. The only type of weapon he didn't have was a gun, and that was because they were only obtainable in the human world and they were hard to purchase if you were lying low. Ryou knew for a fact that Taki used his extra space for some… ahem… questionable materials.)

Ryou quickly unsheathed the 20 centimeter long knife and brandished it expertly. They'd learned weaponry in training, too. Ryou ducked low and used his razor sharp knife to cut deep wounds in the humans' legs. Ryou was averse to killing anything with a life. He didn't like _weeding gardens_ for Kami-sama's sake! He wasn't about to kill a human, not when there was another choice.

The humans fell as their legs were attacked. Ryou got out of the way quickly, making sure no human would fall on him. The humans would be fine; the wounds weren't lethal, but they were enough to sting quite a bit and hopefully keep them out of battle, at least for a while.

They were going to win this fight. No matter what.

* * *

Syuuichirou was frantic. He was a gentle person by nature and disliked confrontation of any sort. While he had gotten used to hand to hand combat, and even the use of several weapons, he was uncomfortable with the idea of hurting someone to the point that they couldn't even stand up.

A sudden jolt of pain slammed into Syuuichirou's gut as a soldier punched him. Immediately, without thinking, Syuuichirou healed it. He was honestly getting a bit sick of it, really. He'd been hit many times more than he'd hit someone (though that was more because Syuuichirou lacked the reflexes, flexibility and lithe body to avoid attacks as easily as Eiji did). It was quite frustrating, peace-loving as he was. He even sort of wished the soldiers could have a little taste of their own medicine.

Syuuichirou's hand glowed red all of a sudden, and, by instinct, he made skin contact with the first patch of skin he could find on the human who had attacked him. Suddenly, the human's eyes widened as if he'd been punched in the gut and fell backwards due to the unexpected pain. Syuuichirou, on the other hand, felt the weight that was usually present in his body after a healing disappear.

Then, with a jolt, Syuuichirou realized what he'd just done. He'd just _transferred his pain over to someone else._

"You have to do it," said Echizen's voice from beside him.

"E-Echizen!" Syuuichirou exclaimed in surprise. The last he knew, Echizen had been in an induced coma back at Seigaku House. "What are you doing here?"

"Not important," he said, grabbing onto a human's arm and tearing away the armor on his chest like it was made of paper. Of course, this was helped by Echizen's power of degeneration; Syuuichirou had seen the scrawny boy try weightlifting and _boy_, he didn't have super strength at all.

Echizen pushed the human away, placing his palm in the middle of the human's exposed chest, and the human screamed in pain as he fell backwards. Echizen had degenerated his flesh, leaving a large but shallow wound.

"You have to do it," Echizen repeated, keeping the humans at bay by outstretching one arm in a stance (oddly reminiscent of kung fu) that screamed 'I know what I'm doing'. The humans were evidently intimidated by him, because they kept their distance. "You have to use your power, Oishi-san."

Syuuichirou shook his head. "No. I don't want to use these powers to hurt people."

"Look around you, Oishi-san," said Echizen harshly. "There's no _time_ to be worrying about this! We need everything we have to beat these guys."

Syuuichirou shook his head again and ran a hand through his hair. "I can't," he said finally, his voice cracking.

Echizen pursed his lips and threw an attacking soldier into another, leaving residual power on the human to cause everything he touched to degenerate. "Mada mada dane. But it's your choice, Oishi-san," said Echizen coldly, angrily. "But remember that your refusal to use your power could very well cost us all our lives."

And with that, Echizen ran straight into the sea of soldiers and degenerated whatever he could touch.

Syuuichirou steeled himself. The soldiers were staring after Echizen now, but soon they'd realize he was still there and attack. Syuuichirou had to make a decision– _now_.

Reaching for the weight he'd obtained from healing Taki and Kaidoh's paralysis earlier, Syuuichirou took a deep breath and glared at the humans around him as his hands glowed red.

_It is kind of strange_, thought Wakashi as he utilized his super speed to evade his opponent's attack and retaliate with a quick karate chop to the neck. The man collapsed, twitching on the ground. _Strange that we four are fighting together. We have nothing in common._

Inui had pulled a hammer out of nowhere (hammerspace? If it was, it was certainly a lot more beneficial than the yaoi manga Haginosuke carried around in _his_ hammerspace) and was smashing shoulders and knees like crazy. Kaidoh had split himself into three and was fighting off several humans at the same time.

Haginosuke, despite his (extremely) feminine appearance, was quite skilled with weaponry of every sort, and had nimbly climbed up a tree with a bow and a quiver full of arrows. (Yes, they were underground, but there was a long story involving the mutation of plants to adapt to underground life that Wakashi really didn't want to get into.)

Haginosuke had good aim, and would have been plucking soldiers off easily – had it not been for the fact that the humans were wearing thick armor. As such, Wakashi had decided to help Haginosuke by using his super speed to dash up to Haginosuke's target and plunge the arrow in further. Wakashi then removed the arrow and returned it to Haginosuke's quiver.

It was a plan that was crude but effective, and Wakashi kept it up, even as he felt his power draining slowly and his legs getting heavy with fatigue.

Wakashi grit his teeth. He would fight to the end, even if _the end_ meant death.

* * *

Izumi's heart sank as he watched the Strangers fight. They were losing strength, losing power. Their Stranger powers were at their peak since they were teenagers; Strangers peaked faster because their lifespans were shorter. A fair trade-off, Izumi figured, since Strangers had, well, powers.

Unfortunately, their physical bodies were not quite as strong as their powers, and Izumi could see that Shishido, who had been fighting with a _tantou_ for an hour or so, was tiring fast. The Strangers were also at a disadvantage because they weren't aiming to kill whereas the humans didn't care if they killed Strangers or not.

Humans… were truly savage, Izumi realized with a jolt. The moment they found something different, something that could potentially hurt them, they wiped it out before it became a threat.

Izumi watched the Strangers fight for their lives, for their homes. _It's useless_, said a voice inside him. _They can never win. It's impossible._

It might have been his intuition –his intuition had always been very strong– but Izumi felt that it was less of a feeling and more of a fact. There was something in the back of Izumi's mind, something that was fuzzy and blurred. It was like there was something Izumi had forgotten and was trying his hardest to remember.

Izumi was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard someone shout, "Gakuto!"

It was the pink Stranger –Kikumaru, was it?– as he cradled Mukahi in his arms. "Oi, Gakuto! Gakuto! Oishi!" Kikumaru called frantically, setting Mukahi down and using his claws and teeth to keep the humans at bay. "Oishi!"

Oshitari was at Mukahi's side in an instant, everything in his way immediately slamming to the sides to make way for him. "Gakuto," he whispered brokenly as he cradled the smaller boy's head. Izumi wasn't quite sure how, but he had heard the whisper so clearly, as if he was right on scene with them.

Oishi, the fellow with the strange haircut that had arrived with reinforcements, rushed over, though not nearly as quickly as Oshitari, and knelt by Mukahi's side. Oshitari left Mukahi to Oishi's care and rose, his eyes dangerous.

Oshitari spoke only three words, soft but deadly, "You will die."

Then a powerful force lifted the humans around him off of the ground easily and threw them into the ground harshly. Kikumaru's face was serious, and he quickly took down those that were still in fighting condition. Oshitari had gone beserk, throwing punches and kicks with no regard for his own safety. Only determined to get them away, away from Mukahi.

Meanwhile, Oishi examined Mukahi and occasionally held glowing green hands over him. Despite Oishi's efforts, Mukahi did not regain consciousness.

Once every human in the immediate vicinity had been dealt with, Oshitari turned back to Oishi and Mukahi, looking very close to tears. "How is he?" he asked fearfully.

"He's alive," said Oishi grimly. "Alive, but just barely. He doesn't have very good stamina to begin with, and all the acrobatics and use of his power as well as the non-stop fighting just took it out of him. He's only in such bad shape because he pushed himself too hard. He reached his limit at least an hour ago. He's not built for long fights."

Oshitari bit his lip. "But he'll be alright?"

Oishi nodded. "With time, he'll be fine."

Oshitari breathed a sigh of relief. Shishido suddenly appeared beside them in a shimmer of sparkles. "What's happened? What's wrong with Gakuto? Is he alright? Where are the bastards that did this?"

"Calm down, Shishido," said Oshitari in a low voice. "He's alive, that's enough. Take him somewhere safe, Shishido. I'm going to teach these bastards a lesson."

Shishido nodded gravely. "Godspeed, Oshitari," he said. "Don't let them get away with this."

Then he and Mukahi's unconscious body disappeared in a burst of sparkles that seemed a bit too cheery for this occasion.

"I won't," growled Oshitari, his eyes turning a sinister blood red. Izumi recalled that Oshitari was part demon.

"I'll let you handle this one," said Kikumaru as he morphed into a pink leopard and ran across the battlefield in Ohtori's direction. Izumi could understand his logic; Ohtori had been fighting with Shishido, but now that Shishido had left the scene temporarily, Ohtori had to do double work.

Izumi's eyes jerked away from the scene and focused on Hiyoshi instead. _He's going to go down soon,_ said the matter-of-fact voice, and true enough, Hiyoshi went down as a particularly vicious punch was thrown at him.

"Wakashi!" Even without Izumi's suddenly incredible hearing, he could have heard Taki's ear-splitting shriek from a mile away.

Oishi dashed there as quickly as he could, and this time Atobe followed, using Taki to amplify his power and turning most of the surrounding soldiers into ice. Even he was fatigued, Izumi could tell.

"Move on to a different section," Atobe hissed to the boy with the green bandana and an extremely tall boy. _Kaidoh,_ realized Izumi. _And Inui. …Why do I know this?_ "Don't let them get near the house!"

Both boys nodded and left quickly. Catching sight of Oishi struggling through the ice statues, Atobe made a gesture that reminded Izumi of Moses parting the Red Sea and the ice sculptures cleared to form a path for Oishi.

"Thanks, Atobe," panted Oishi as he knelt next to Hiyoshi.

"You can thank me by keeping him alive," said Atobe curtly. "Taki, give me a weapon."

Taki pulled out a long Chinese _jian_ and tossed it hilt-first at Atobe. Atobe caught it easily and nodded in thanks before running off to assist Akutagawa who was looking very wiped out.

_They're not going to win at this rate_, the voice said quietly. _They're tired. They're young. They're not ready for this._

Horrified, Izumi watched as the Strangers fell slowly, one by one, until it was only Atobe, Oshitari, Tezuka, Fuji and Kaidoh left. They were holding their ground by the house, trying their hardest to keep the soldiers away. Fuji's immobilization time was getting shorter and shorter as he tired, and all of them had resorted to using physical weapons.

"We're not going to lose this battle, damn it!" Atobe growled. "I'm not going to lose this battle!"

"Shut up," advised Tezuka bluntly. "You'll only drain your energy by talking."

They'd put up an incredible fight. There had been nineteen of them in the beginning of this battle– wait. Nineteen…? Izumi frowned and searched his memory. Who had he forgotten?

Sakaki.

Where was Sakaki? Izumi hadn't seen him since the battle began. Izumi scanned the battleground and gasped when he saw that Sakaki was lying on the ground, motionless.

Dead.

Izumi's eyes widened in horror. Sakaki might have been one of the only kind Strangers in the world, and humans had killed him.

_It was a natural death,_ the voice told him. _He died a natural death, right after the soldiers came in and kept everyone's attention._

Nineteen Strangers. One dead. Fourteen injured to the point of unconsciousness. Five barely managing to fight off humans who wanted to destroy their home.

Izumi felt something stirring within him. The fuzzy image in his brain was gaining focus, becoming clearer as Izumi realized that immense power was pulsing in his body, waiting to be let out. It had been too long, too long since he'd last let it out.

Izumi knew what he had to do then. He took a deep breath, readied himself mentally, then threw the window open and launched himself into the sea of people. Then Izumi summoned all the power he had in his body…

…and let it all go.


	13. Chapter 13

Kaoru was bewildered when it happened. One moment he was fighting off five humans at once, and the next he was watching Hyoutei's human captive committing suicide.

Kaoru didn't blame him, and didn't really care to watch a man die. He was about to turn away, but the human suddenly glowed a bright white that captivated each and every one of them, soldiers and Strangers alike.

'_Don't be afraid,'_ said a soothing voice in Kaoru's head. _'It will all be over in a moment.'_

'_Am I dead? Am I dying?'_ Kaoru asked back, afraid. _'I… don't want to die!'_

'_Don't be afraid,'_ repeated the voice calmly. _'It will soon be over.'_

And then Kaoru found himself in a translucent white box. "W-What's going on?" he asked his sempai frantically. Both Tezuka and Fuji were staring, transfixed, at the glowing man in the air.

"Can you feel it?" murmured Fuji, eyes wide open. "Can you feel this power?"

"Yes," breathed Oshitari, his spaded tail waving. "But how is this possible?"

"We didn't notice," said Atobe, sounding astonished. "Such power and nobody noticed for thirty-four years."

Of course, all this didn't make much sense to Kaoru, who was more concerned about whether or not he was going to die.

"Don't worry, Kaidoh," said Tezuka, putting a hand on Kaoru's shoulder as he watched the man glow brighter. "It'll be over soon."

"Yes," said Oshitari, Fuji and Atobe in a completely unrehearsed unison that somehow didn't seem to shock them.

Then the glow brightened until Kaoru couldn't see anything, not even Tezuka-buchou a foot away–

And then there was nothing.

* * *

Sakuno was running around frantically. When Shishido teleported himself and Gakuto into the middle of Seigaku House, she'd run to their sides.

"I don't know what you're doing here," said Shishido, sounding like he didn't really care, "but whatever it is, please stay here and take care of him. He's been drained of his power; it'll be dangerous to wake him up."

Sakuno nodded and bowed. "You can count on me," she said determinedly. She'd been training, and her powers were slowly strengthening. Of course, this didn't really do much in terms of taking care of a patient that you didn't need to heal, but it gave Sakuno confidence, and Sakuno didn't have much of that, really.

Shishido nodded back at her. "Right. I'm going to go."

"Good luck!" she called as he disappeared in a shower of sparkles. Sakuno took a deep breath and shifted Gakuto into a more comfortable position than the sprawl of limbs Shishido had left him in. Then she assessed his condition as calmly as she could, placing a hand on his forehead for starters.

In general, Sakuno worked her way down from the head. Unlike other Healers, Sakuno sent power into the mind of her patient and accessed the pain receptors in the brain. From there she could find out what was hurting and how bad and heal it; or, in a worst case scenario, numb the pain until the patient passed.

Thankfully, Gakuto seemed to be fine. Sakuno sensed a residual taste of someone else's power; Oishi's, she knew from healing Ryoma. Oishi's power had been all over him, too, just like it was all over Gakuto.

Of course, due to the hasty job, a lot of wounds went unnoticed. Sakuno reined in her power and sent only the slightest trickle through Gakuto's body, enough to scab his minor cuts and speed up the healing of his numerous bruises.

Sakuno then turned her attention to a relatively deep cut on Gakuto's forearm. There was so much blood on him that Oishi must have missed it. Sakuno fetched water and a towel and gently cleaned the wound, making sure to numb the pain to make sure Gakuto didn't wake up. There was an incredible amount of dirt on him everywhere, and Sakuno made sure his wound was clean before healing it up.

There weren't any other threatening wounds, so Sakuno decided to clean the rest of him off.

…Well, as much as she could, anyway. She was a girl and he was a guy and he had a very possessive, part demon boyfriend. Sakuno wasn't _that_ stupid.

She had just finished wiping down Gakuto's leg when Shishido popped into the room again, this time supporting Hiyoshi with Taki's help. Normally, Sakuno would have been worried as hell, freaking out and praying for her friends' safety, but Sakuno steeled herself. She was a Healer, and people needed to be healed, so goddamnit, she was going to be serious and heal!

"Put him there on the loveseat," she ordered, surprising everyone in the room including herself. "I'll put out some futons on the floor, so be careful where you pop in later."

Shishido nodded, and he and Taki set Hiyoshi down on the loveseat gently. "Got it. Come on, Taki."

"Right."

The two disappeared in the sparkles they'd come in, and Sakuno gave Hiyoshi a visual once over to make sure he wasn't going to die in the next five minutes while she retrieved the futons from the closet and laid them out. Sakuno had been quite useless for fifteen years of her life, but not today. Today, Ryuuzaki Sakuno was going to be useful.

She moved quickly, but had only laid out the first futon when Tomoka came knocking at the door. Sakuno let her in, informed her of the situation quickly and set Tomoka to work putting out the futons. Meanwhile, Sakuno healed Hiyoshi's deeper wounds. She noticed that there were a lot more on Hiyoshi than there had been on Gakuto, and chalked it up to Oishi losing power as well.

She hadn't even finished healing Hiyoshi up when Shishido came back with, surprisingly, Inui. Inui appeared to have been roughed up pretty badly; his glasses were cracked, he had one shoe missing and his whole body was covered in bruises and blood. There was blood seeping through his usually pristine white shirt, and Sakuno hoped that it wasn't his.

Shishido let Tomoka use her super strength to set Inui down on a futon gently. He was actually still conscious, and was attempting to get up. "The fight isn't over," he hissed through his teeth. "I have… to help!"

"No," said Sakuno firmly. She had Tomoka hold him down while she pressed her hands to his forehead and entered his mind. Sakuno pursed her lips at her findings. Inui had been stabbed in the arm once, but Oishi had healed that up well enough. What Sakuno was really worried about was his abdomen, which had been sliced open with a knife. The cut wasn't exactly fresh; Inui had been fighting with this gash for at least ten minutes.

Sakuno sent a soothing wave of power over Inui's brain, numbing the pain and stimulating slumber. It worked, and Sakuno withdrew her hands; she had to work quickly before anyone else came in with anything worse. "Help me get his shirt off," she told Tomoka, carefully peeling the shirt off of Inui's bloody torso. Tomoka lifted Inui's body gently to help the process, and pulled it off of his arms and head while Sakuno cleaned the wound quickly but gently, then held her glowing green hands over the wound.

Sakuno usually healed better when there was skin to skin contact, but she wasn't about to put her hands over a wound that big. It would really hurt, and putting her hands on the surrounding skin wasn't going to direct the flow of power to the proper place. So she settled with the little space between her hands and the wound and watched as it patched up.

"Wow," breathed Tomoka, eyes wide. She'd obviously never seen Sakuno heal a wound this deep, and Sakuno could understand her awe; it was pretty cool to see muscle stitching back together, skin joining like it had never been separated in the first place.

Inui had lost a lot of blood. He was an idiot to have fought in this condition. He didn't value his life–

He was willing to die. Willing to die for the sake of keeping the Strangers safe. Sakuno stopped mentally berating him and sent in more healing power to replenish his blood.

And then Ryoma came. Shishido dropped him off in the armchair; Sakuno left him there for the moment, finishing Inui's healing before going over to Ryoma. Sakuno almost couldn't believe it. Ryoma was down, and he was such a skilled fighter. Things at the battle… weren't looking good.

Sakuno checked Ryoma for injuries and found that he had been knocked out cold due to a very large force to the head. If he were human and not a Stranger, he would have had his skull cracked open due to the force; but Strangers had thicker and stronger bones than the average human, so all Ryoma had was a migraine and thin fracture in the skull upon the point of impact.

Sakuno placed a hand over the wound gingerly and let her power seep in and repair the fracture. It wasn't a magic, hold your hand over it and voila sort of thing; Sakuno had to visualize her power as a thin line weaving through the wound, as if she were sewing the bone back together.

Sakuno had never dealt with something like this before, but Hanamura, who was the mentor of Jyousei Shonan House, had been teaching her the ropes of healing on her grandmother's request, and Sakuno had performed this healing on a simulation program (that Hanamura had programmed herself, can you imagine?) a thousand times so really there was no need to worry–

_Focus!_ she scolded herself. _'If you worry, you'll only stress yourself and you'll mess up! Don't think, just __**do**__._'

So she stopped worrying about it and instead thought about the action of the healing. Healing up bone was always longer and harder than healing flesh wounds.

Distantly, Sakuno acknowledged the shimmering sparkles that followed Shishido as he appeared with Kikumaru in tow. Inui's mind had apparently awoken from its stimulated slumber, though not completely, because he said, "The sparkles are quite feminine for a man like Shishido."

Gakuto was also awake, because he snorted and said, "Tell me about it."

"You're lucky you're wounded," growled Shishido, though there was no real threat behind his words, before disappearing.

Sakuno finished the closing of Ryoma's skull and quickly moved over to Gakuto. "Don't try to move," she warned him. "You drained yourself. How are you awake?"

Gakuto shrugged casually, though his eyes were dark and angry. "I don't know either. I'm wiped. Don't worry, I can't move at all."

Sakuno nodded. "Good. It could be dangerous to use your powers in this state. You could drain your life force by accident."

Leaving him with that cheery statement, she went over to Inui, who was going to be stubborn and try to get up even though he knew he was still injured and fatigued.

"You need rest," she told him gently. "Sleep."

"But–"

Sakuno was reluctant to argue with the very tall and very intimidating boy, but luckily Tomoka picked up on that and said firmly, "No. You need rest. You were stabbed in the stomach, and I'm pretty sure you need longer than a few minutes to recover from that, even with healing. Right, Sakuno?"

Sakuno nodded. "It's recommended to let the patient rest for four hours," she said, recalling her lessons. "One hour at the very least."

Inui's lips pressed into a thin line. "One hour," he said. "One hour later, if the battle is still going on, you will let me go."

"Yes," said Sakuno as she pressed her hand to Inui's forehead and soothed his brain into slumber, though she was hesitant. But Inui was a good fighter, and at the rate the Strangers were coming in, they were going to need all the help they could get.

When five translucent white cubes appeared in the middle of the already over-crowded living room, hovering over several people, Tomoka declared it a sign of teleportation. "That's where they're going to appear. We have to move the people under it!"

Sakuno nodded in understanding and had Tomoka move them, two at a time, out of the way and a little ways in the front hall. The cubes were glowing brighter every moment, and Tomoka had barely moved the last Stranger out of the way before the cubes' glow increased in intensity and lit the whole room up in a bright flash of white.

* * *

When the flash subsided, Sakuno caught sight of Tezuka, Fuji, Kaidoh, Atobe and Oshitari standing in the middle of the room. Kaidoh looked slightly afraid, Tezuka and Fuji were serious, Atobe was frowning and Oshitari's eyes were wide, as if he didn't believe what he was seeing.

There was a tense moment. Nobody knew what to do or what to say. It wasn't clear who had teleported the five here; Shishido had been put out of commission some time ago (he'd dropped to the ground right as he got Kawamura back), and his teleportation wasn't accompanied by a white cube, it was accompanied by sparkles.

Then the Healer in Sakuno quickly ushered them into chairs and looked them over for wounds. Jirou, who had recovered well enough to limp around, slowly went over to Atobe. "Are you alright, Keigo?" he asked worriedly, cupping Keigo's face in his hand. "What happened? Are you hurt?"

Atobe pulled Jirou down on his lap and hugged him tight to his chest.

Sakuno averted her eyes, slightly embarrassed, and turned her attention back to Fuji. Sakuno's eyes widened. Fuji was completely unharmed. He had no cuts or scratches or even bruises anywhere, though he had blood and dirt everywhere.

"F-Fuji-sempai," she began shakily. "Y-You're… completely fine."

"What?" Tezuka asked, his head whipping around.

Oshitari frowned as he turned to them. "But he took a knife to the leg earlier. How can he be fine?"

Sakuno shook her head. "I-I don't know, b-but look at his leg," she pointed out, cleaning off the blood and dirt with a wet towel. There was clearly a scar on his leg, but it looked like a wound years old and not mere hours.

"The power," Oshitari said, eyes wide. "The power from the blast. I bet Izumi was a sponge! He healed us as he teleported us here!"

Oshitari tried to rise, but Tomoka held him down. "No," she said firmly. "You don't move until Sakuno is sure you're all right."

Jirou nodded. "She's right. But I can help with the checking." Jirou suddenly attached his lips to Atobe's as if they were magnets attracted to each other.

"Jesus!" cried Tomoka in fright, jolting away from them. "Can't that wait until after you've determined his health?"

Oshitari was completely unfazed. "I assume that Jirou is determining his health. After observing your technique, Ryuuzaki-chan, Jirou must have realized that he can channel power through the body and sense for pain. Skin contact, of course, makes the job easier. Jirou just decided that he could kill two birds with one stone."

Jirou pulled away from the kiss and grinned. "Right on the money, Oshitari," he said, his grin devious. "As always. Now stay put."

"If you kiss him like that it'll be the last thing you do, Jirou!" Gakuto warned from across the room, draped over an armchair. "There are limits as to the things we share!"

Jirou laughed. "Don't worry, Gakuto, I wouldn't dream of it."

Oshitari smiled lovingly at his boyfriend. "Nice to know you care, Gakuto."

Gakuto looked away, blushing. Sakuno was pretty sure that if he hadn't been completely drained and unable to move his limbs, he would have crossed his arms. "Whatever, Yuushi. Just… just tell us what happened." His voice had quieted down fearfully. "What happened at our home?"

Oshitari's face turned serious. "I don't know," he said grimly. "I don't know what exactly happened."

"I think it's safe to assume that Izumi's power killed those humans and himself," said Fuji grimly. "Nee-san did a reading for me, and she said that there was going to be a sacrifice for the greater good."

"With that amount of power let out at one go, he definitely died," said Hiyoshi quietly, sitting up in his futon. "I could feel it from here."

"Do you think it killed the others in the area?" asked Atobe.

Hiyoshi shook his head. "I don't know," he said, not sounding very happy about it. "I can sense power, but those people were human. I have no idea if they died or not."

"Fuji," said Kunimitsu as Sakuno finished up Kaidoh's check up and moved on to Kunimitsu. Syuusuke smiled. "Hai, buchou. He rose from his seat and went over to Momoshiro, who was sleeping on the futon in the hallway, snoring away.

"Momo," called Syuusuke, kneeling down and shaking the younger boy. "Momo, wake up."

Momoshiro rolled over in his sleep, groaning.

"Excuse me, Fuji-san," said Kaidoh respectfully, coming up behind him. "Let me try."

Syuusuke backed away. "Be my guest," he said, his smile growing. This was going to be interesting.

"Momoshiro, chocolate chip pancakes."

Momoshiro's eyes snapped open and he sat up immediately. "Where?" he asked, eyes wide. Kaidoh sighed, presumably in disgust, and walked away. Momoshiro, obviously, picked up on this and scrambled to his feet immediately. "You want to fight, Mamushi?"

Kaidoh paused, then turned around. "No, I don't want to fight," he growled, his eyes telling a different story. "Not in the middle of a makeshift hospital."

Momoshiro blinked and seemed to realize just where they were. An embarrassed blush came over his features, and Syuusuke stopped the impending outburst Momoshiro was bound to have by clapping a hand on his shoulder. "Momo," he said. "Do you think those soldiers are dead?"

Momoshiro faltered. "What?" he asked, blinking.

"You sense emotion," Syuusuke continued. "And as I understand it, every individual carries a different signature on their emotions, yes?"

"Y-Yeah, but I don't know what their emotional signature feels like!"

"Doesn't matter," said Syuusuke. "Go on and feel for it. Sweep all the tunnels."

Sakuno rushed over and pressed a hand to Momoshiro's right arm. Apparently, she had finished checking that Kunimitsu was all right. Her hand glowed pink, and Echizen (who, Syuusuke later found out, had woken up when Momoshiro tried to pick a fight with Kaidoh) explained, "She's transferring power for Momo to use," when he noticed the confused expressions all around. "She's channeling it in through his right arm because that's the spot where the natural barrier of Momo's power is the weakest."

"What?" asked Gakuto, confused.

Hiyoshi took up narration. "Everybody, human or Stranger, has a natural barrier around it."

"Let me guess: the skin?" asked Shishido dryly.

"Before the skin," said Echizen impatiently, glaring at Shishido. "For humans, the thickness and effectiveness of the barrier depends on their willpower. Usually it's colorless, but sometimes, a human with great potential Stranger powers has a dim, pale layer of color around his body. This barrier generally protects against curses and magic of all sorts, but doesn't protect the body from physical attacks."

"For Strangers," continued Hiyoshi, "the barrier varies in color and is usually vibrant. It protects us against other Strangers' attacks and is also easily broken by physical attacks. The effectiveness is based on how much power you have and how much control you have over it."

"Interesting," said Syuusuke, stroking his chin. "And Sakuno-chan can sense their weak points?"

"Yes," said Echizen. "She didn't realize it until now," he smirked, nodding at her surprised expression, "but it's always been a sort of instinct for her."

"Interesting," said Oshitari. "She can't see the power but knows where it's weakest."

"She'd be a good asset in battle, ne, Mitsu?" Syuusuke mused, tilting his head.

"No," said Kunimitsu firmly. "We aren't going to put her on the frontlines. She's too young."

"She's Echizen's age," Syuusuke reminded him gently. Kunimitsu apparently didn't hear him.

Momoshiro's eyes opened as he said, "I don't feel anything out of the ordinary."

"And therein lies the truth," said Syuusuke.

"I see," said Inui, who had also just woken up. Nobody had known he was actually conscious, thanks to his supine position and opaque glasses. Several people shrieked loudly and jerked away from him in fright. Inui ignored them and continued calmly, "Because if the soldiers were alive, Momoshiro would have felt their prescence."

"Since he feels nothing out of the ordinary, they're dead," stated Taki thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.

Momoshiro paled. "D-Dead?" he whispered. "Did we– did we kill them?"

The five survivors exchanged glances. "Syuusuke, you tell it," said Kunimitsu after a slight pause. "Atobe will make it self-centered and Oshitari will make it overly romantic."

"Excuse me?" Atobe demanded, looking shocked.

"You know me well, Tezuka," said Oshitari, grinning wickedly. He had moved across the room and had rearranged Gakuto in his lap at some point of time, and was stroking the smaller boy's leg.

Jirou rolled his eyes and kissed Atobe's protests away. Syuusuke took Atobe's momentary silence as an opportunity to begin recounting the story.

"Once Shishido had teleported away, the human soldiers had backed us up right onto the porch of Hyoutei House. It was the five of us against too many of them, and we were tired, battered and bloody, and our spirits were diminishing as the time ticked by. Thankfully, by then, the weapon they had stolen from Kabaji had ceased to function, but it was still hard work fighting them off.

"And then, all of a sudden, Hyoutei's human captive, Izumi jumps right out of the window and starts hanging suspended in midair, glowing a bright white! Everybody there looked up at the glowing man and was entranced. The five of us were suddenly in white boxes of some sort, and a voice spoke in our minds, _'Don't be afraid, it'll all be over in a moment.'_

"I could feel a huge wave of power wash over me, and I knew its source was the glowing man in the air. I was not scared; I had been teleported before, I had been mindspoken to before. I was experienced; all of us were. The only exception was Seigaku's little rookie, Kaidoh, and he was understandably quite panicked. 'What's going on?' he asked Mitsu and myself, looking frantic."

Fuji actually did Kaidoh's deep voice very well. It didn't sound like he was attempting to imitate Kaidoh's voice; it sounded like he was Kaidoh in disguise.

Fuji chuckled somewhat sheepishly, then continued, "Sorry to say, I didn't pay much attention to him. 'Can you feel it?' I murmured. 'Can you feel this power?' I was unable to believe my eyes. Such power was coming from what we assumed was a human; of course I was shocked. 'Yes,' replied Oshitari, just as awed as I was. 'But how is this possible?'

"'We didn't notice,' said Atobe, astonished. 'Such power and nobody noticed for thirty-four years.'

"Kaidoh wasn't reassured by all our talk. Then Mitsu put his hand on Kaidoh's shoulder and said, 'Don't worry, Kaidoh. It'll be over soon.'

"'Yes,' Oshitari, Atobe and I chorused in response. Then the glow brightened until it filled the sky and blinded us all. I couldn't see a foot past my face, couldn't feel anything, not even the injured leg that had been throbbing with pain persistently for the better part of an hour already."

The faces all around him told him that they were hooked on Syuusuke's every word. Syuusuke allowed himself a small, inward smile, and continued.

"And then there was nothing."

* * *

The long-winded chapters and deliberate word count boosting is because this story is for NaNoWriMo (Google it) and I have to write 50,000 words for this by 30th November, so please don't mind them.

Reviews, please! They motivate me to write. Though please don't give me the kind of review that says, "You suck," because I know it sucks and I frankly don't care at the moment, though I might in December, after the writing frenzy is over. So don't waste your time and mine by giving that kind of comment (especially with no basis).

Love,

Stars of Gold


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: This chapter contains **more profanity** than all the others put together. This is because **Akutsu Jin** has been introduced to the story and is in angry denial. Please be warned that **the language in the last section** is less than beautiful poetry and should not be shown to parents, teachers or other authority figures. Enjoy.

* * *

The following day, the members of Hyoutei and Seigaku were having breakfast when Atobe looked up from his tamagoyaki (rolled omelet) and asked sharply, "What happened to Kantoku?"

The whole table stopped eating with food halfway to their mouths.

"Kantoku," breathed Shishido, eyes wide. "We forgot about Kantoku. How could we have done that?"

Inui adjusted his glasses. "You usually fight and spar without your mentor. It's not unusual that you do not seek his presence during and after battle," he reasoned.

Gakuto dropped his chopsticks and rested his head in his hands. "We forgot about him. We let him die. He took us in and took care of us, and we just forgot about him and let him die."

The table was silent as they mourned the loss of Sakaki Taro.

"No," said Echizen, breaking the silence. "There wasn't anything you could have done."

"You know what happened to him?" Jirou asked, eyes wide.

"Tell us!" demanded Hiyoshi.

Echizen looked him in the eye. "You should know, Hiyoshi," he said, munching on a piece of toast, "that a body of a Stranger still retains most of the power the Stranger had in life for twenty-four hours."

Hiyoshi frowned. "Only if it's a natural death," he argued. "If there's a physical wound, the power would leak out faster, just like the blood, through the wound."

"Precisely. I searched the tunnels; your mentor's power signature was found right in front of your house, only a quarter of his power drained."

"What about an internal wound?" asked Oshitari, frowning. "What if he was attacked in the mind and killed from the brain?"

Echizen shook his head and took a long draught from one of his two tall glasses of milk. Hiyoshi took this as a cue to continue the explanation.

"Energy that isn't ready to die leaks out of every orifice when it isn't contained," he explained.

Tezuka frowned. "You make it sound like energy is alive."

Hiyoshi nodded. "You have to understand that these powers of ours are like they actually are alive. They've got personalities and even feelings to some extent. Has anyone noticed that on certain days, your powers just refuse to work for you?"

The Strangers around the table exchanged glances and murmured assent.

Hiyoshi nodded. "That's because your powers were throwing a hissy fit. You don't control them, most of the time; they allow themselves to be shaped."

Echizen set the glass down with a thud and said, "That means that if your powers decide that they don't like you, you're pretty much screwed as a Stranger."

Atobe was losing patience. "So where is Kantoku's body?"

Echizen shrugged. "Outside of Hyoutei House. I think your Izumi shielded him before exploding like a suicide bomber."

Every member of Hyoutei House rose in an impressively dramatic unison.

"Let's go, boys," said Atobe in a damn cool way. Hyoutei nodded and left the House at a run.

"Kakkoi~" said Sakuno and Tomoka in unison. Echizen turned back to his food in what seemed to be a dark mood. Momoshiro clapped him on the back and grinned knowingly. Echizen reached to pull his cap over his eyes moodily, remembered that he wasn't wearing his cap and settled for a glare at Momoshiro.

"Why didn't they just teleport there?" wondered Kikumaru out loud.

* * *

Sakaki Taro's body was given to his human students and colleagues. They would wonder about him if he never showed up again; and what with human nature being what it was, they would try to track him down, and while the chances of them actually finding an entrance to the Stranger tunnels were slim, nobody wanted to take that risk.

So Hyoutei House had a small funeral for him in their home. Izumi had shielded the house as well as Sakaki's body before exploding like a self-destruct message for spies.

…

Well, sort of like that, except on a bigger scale. Jirou figured the self-destruct message for spies would have exploded in a similarly huge way if the message was the same weight and size as Izumi, which would be unlikely, because while Izumi had been a scrawny guy, he was still pretty heavy for a message to be duplicating his weight and size. What agency would send you a mission brief through a huge, human-sized paper or pen or whatever anyway? It would be so inconvenient and–

Bah. Jirou had to stop letting his mind wander. Well, he wasn't doing anything particularly important at the time, but he could have been and shouldn't keep spacing out like this. It was bad enough that he was sleeping half the day away, he didn't have to spend the little time he had awake going off topic.

Like he was doing now. Back to the point.

The memorial service underground, at Hyoutei House, was short. It was a small gathering, and it was open. There wasn't much in the program, just a few words given by Atobe and then a toast to Sakaki's name.

* * *

It was about a month after Sakaki's death when Oshitari and Niou finally found something worthwhile in Frank's thoughts.

"America's going to attack Hokkaido first," said Oshitari one day at a Leader meeting. Mentors didn't make decisions, only advised Leaders. Leaders usually did what they saw fit for their team, regardless of their Mentor's opposing advice.

"It was revealed that the Americans aren't sure if their weapons work properly on people of different ethnicities," continued Niou. "As such, they intend to attack the smallest state first, in case their weapons don't work. Each individual sent to test these weapons carries a gun as well, to be used in this sort of scenario. They theorize that less people will be easier to overpower."

"If the weapons work, they will launch an attack on Tokyo immediately, before we figure out how to counterattack," Oshitari said grimly. "The attack is planned for next Tuesday at noon."

Yukimura stepped forward and Niou stepped back out of respect for his Leader. "Both myself and Atobe-kun received this information late last night, and we believe that the best course of action is to assemble a small group of Strangers who are willing to step into unfamiliar territory in order to evacuate the Strangers in Hokkaido.

"Please note that this mission may be dangerous. We had issued for new tunnels and houses to be built in order to accommodate the Strangers we are rescuing, but the process has been delayed and will only be completed the day before the attack. The Houses aren't enough to accommodate all of the Hokkaido Strangers, so we will have to evacuate them the day before the attack," Yukimura announced clearly, obviously displeased.

Murmurs broke out among the crowd.

"I understand that this timing is very close, and that the Americans may choose to attack slightly earlier, at which point we will be killed. Unfortunately, this is the only option we have. Please spread the word and bring those interested to Ryuuzaki-sensei, Seigaku House's Mentor," continued Yukimura firmly, leaving no room for argument.

Ryuuzaki raised her hand and the earth beneath her feet to make sure everyone knew who she was.

"We will reconvene at this location to discuss this matter further once we have a sufficient number of applicants. You will all be notified through mindspeak. Dismissed."

* * *

Akutsu Jin wouldn't say that he was angry when that little bugger Dan Taichi decided that he wanted to go on that bloody evacuation mission. Of course he wasn't angry; hell, he was fucking _delighted_. That little asshole was a bloody annoyance, sticking to Jin like a piece of fucking chewing gum on his fucking shoe. It was always, "Akutsu-sempai!" this and "Of course I'll volunteer for this desu!" that– because the boy was_ too fucking nice._ He could never just say no.

The little bugger. Fuck Dan and fuck his genki-genki sparkles and fuck the way the green headband Jin gave him kept slipping down and making the bugger look cute.

Fuck.

Jin did not just think that. Dan was a nuisance, not cute. Not cute at all. He was a bloody fucker who enjoyed risking his fucking love for others. Yeah, real noble and all that crap, but Jin really didn't care about that shit, he cared about Dan.

FUCK NO. He didn't care about Dan. At all. The idiot could go and get himself killed or something in the bloody mission if the Americans decided to attack early. He would, too. His powers were so limited! He was an amplifier, and also a sponge, but he could only hold on to a power for 10 minutes. What use was that? And what if his teammates died before the ten minutes were up? How the hell was he going to get another power to fight with?

God. Dan couldn't even walk to Seigaku House without someone with him. Bloody useless Stranger he was, unable to fight properly without someone to sap powers from.

"Akutsu-sempai, I got a new power last week desu! Don't you remember?" That was Dan, all wide eyes and innocence and unable to take offense. Dan was probably the only person in the world who was able to read Jin and his thoughts without actually possessing telepathy. It was something else that pissed Jin off about him.

"What power?" snorted Jin gruffly in reply. "That stupid ability shouldn't be called a power." Jin always tried to refrain from using profanity in front of the kid; Dan was too bloody innocent, and Sengoku would kick Jin out of the House if Dan started spouting profanity.

Sengoku, the idiot. Dan knew more swear words then one would have thought, given his cutesy (cutesy meaning that Dan thought it was cute, not Jin!) demeanor, only enhanced by his diminutive size and huge eyes. Dan was also stronger than one would expect from such an innocent-looking boy. He wasn't anywhere near Jin's strength, or even Sengoku, but Dan had a way of tricking your eyes into believing he was a twelve year old boy barely capable of passing PE, let alone decking you so hard in the face your nose broke.

"It's a real power, Akutsu-sempai. Just because its approach is slightly different from yours doesn't mean it can't be used," said Dan sagely, nodding.

Jin snorted again. "Whatever," he grumbled, because he was angry with Dan and not up to the debate right now.

Dan tilted his head slightly, looking up at Jin thoughtfully.

"What?" growled Jin, glaring down at the kid.

"I was just thinking," Dan said quietly (something of a rare occurrence with that goddamned chatterbox), his usual ear to ear grin turning into a smaller, warmer smile, "that I'm really honored that Akutsu-sempai cares about me so much."

…

What. The. Fuck.

Apparently Jin's face displayed what he was feeling, because Dan clarified, "You're angry at me for signing up for this because they warned us that it might be dangerous, desu ne? So that means you're worried about me desu, and that means you care about me... desu ne? I'm happy… desu."

Jin didn't even dignify that with an answer. Instead, he decided that he was going to go on this mission too.

What? The kid obviously needed someone to look after him, and since almost everyone in Houses was gay, they were bound to try to hit on the kid. Add that to the fact that Dan just didn't know how to say no_ to anything_, and well…

Rape wasn't consensual just because Dan didn't say anything to protest.

And if the kid died, Jin would like to be there– to take his fucking green headband back.


	15. Chapter 15

Sumire looked at her list of applicants for the evacuation mission. She had left the signup sheet outside Seigaku House so that applicants could come and register at whatever time they pleased without having to bother her or the others of Seigaku House.

The first nine on the list were her own boys. Every member of Seigaku House had signed up. Sumire sighed and shook her head. Those boys were the brave type. That was going to get them into trouble at some point of time.

Hmm, who else…

Dan Taichi and Akutsu Jin from Yamabuki House. Akutsu would be a good participant, just in case of any attack, however unexpected his signing up had been. Dan might be useful in the evacuation process; Sumire heard from Banji that Dan had recently developed the ability to induce infatuation within the hearts of others. If he managed to control it well enough, he could use his power to control the panic that was bound to envelope Hokkaido's Strangers and make sure nobody went wild and accidentally revealed themselves to humans.

Okay, who else…?

There weren't many who were willing to go on this mission; it was potentially life-threatening, after all, and many young ones nowadays, human or Stranger, were not concerned about anything that didn't directly affect them. It was a real pity, Sumire thought.

In any case, she had twenty-five applicants already, a lot more than expected, so the meeting the next day would be choosing people to go. The Leaders and Mentors would be discussing the best Strangers on the list to be sent to Hokkaido to evacuate the Strangers there.

Sumire wished yet again that they had a contact in Hokkaido. Every state usually had a representative that kept contact with the rest of the nation in case any information needed to be transmitted. Unfortunately, the contact in Hokkaido had been the only one in the whole state with telepathy, and had passed away three years ago. Hokkaido seemed to be cursed; the place had not seen another telepath since his death.

'_Ryuuzaki-sensei, do you have enough volunteers? As you know, we would prefer to have a team of about ten,'_ said Yukimura's voice in her head, interrupting her thoughts.

'_Yes, I have twenty-five volunteers,'_ Sumire replied.

'_More than expected. Very well, we will arrange for a meeting tomorrow at ten a.m.'_

'_All right. Good night, Yukimura.'_

'_Good night.'

* * *

_

It was decided, at the meeting, that Akutsu, Dan, Oishi, Echizen, Atobe, Shishido, Yukimura, Akazawa, Ishida and Sakurai would go on the mission.

"Dan… Dan Taichi?" asked Fuji, amused. "Why would he have been chosen to go on this potentially dangerous mission?"

"Fuji is right," said Inui, reaching to adjust his glasses. He stopped midway when he realized he wasn't wearing them; they had broken during the battle with the humans and Inui hadn't gotten them back from the repair shop yet. He was making do with contacts for now, but he couldn't help feeling naked without them.

But that's beside the point.

"Dan Taichi," Inui continued, "has shown the ability to pick up fighting skills naturally, but is still largely inexperienced and easily thrown off when his moves don't work. Every attempt of mine to collect data is blocked by Akutsu Jin, who seems to be in denial about his protectiveness over Dan-kun. Dan is a weak sponge with the ability to hold on to a power he absorbs for ten minutes and is also an amplifier."

"Your data is incomplete, Inui," said Fuji, smiling as usual. Inui's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Incomplete?" he asked, unsure.

"Yes," said Fuji. "Or, at least, Mitsu seems to think so," he added, nodding at Tezuka. The others turned to look at him and found nothing different in his stern, stoic expression.

"Dan developed a new power last week," said Tezuka by way of explanation. "The ability to induce infatuation in others."

"Heeh, so he can make anyone fall in love with him, nya?" Kikumaru exclaimed, eyes wide.

"That's –that's dangerous," said Oishi worriedly.

"Sugoi!" cried Momoshiro. "He must be pretty good with the girls, then, huh?"

"Idiot," growled Kaidoh. "That kid is the most innocent person you'll find out in these parts. You think he's going to use a power to reel in girls who don't really feel something for him?"

Momoshiro flushed. "I'm not saying that he would," he argued. "Just that he _could_ if he wanted to."

Kaidoh opened his mouth to argue, but Kawamura cut him off quickly. "So he's going to help evacuate people because he can make them fall in love with him?"

"Not love," corrected Fuji. "Not love. It's only infatuation, isn't it?"

"What's the difference?" asked Momoshiro, blinking.

"Ah, youth," said Fuji teasingly. "I think you're the only one in the house who has yet to experience love, Momo."

"Ah, is that so? Well, let's see… Tezuka and Fujiko have each other; Oishi and I are together, Inui had that guy from Rikkai, Taka-san had that cute girl– Miyuki-chan, right?"

Kawamura blushed. "A-Aa," he said shyly. "When I thought I was human."

Kikumaru nodded. "Right. So Taka-san had Miyuki-chan, Ochibi has Sakuno-chan–"

"Heeh, you're together?" Momoshiro asked, nudging the boy beside him. Echizen pulled his cap over his eyes. "No, we're not," he said. "I don't even like her," he saw fit to add, not convincing anybody.

"Uh-huh," said Kikumaru unconvincingly, winking at Echizen. "Of course you don't."

Echizen pulled the brim of his cap further down in embarrassment as the voices of Momoshiro, Kikumaru and Fuji combined filled the room with laughter.

"Anyway," continued Kikumaru, still grinning slyly at Echizen, "who haven't I mentioned…? Ah, Kaidoh! Kaidoh's got–"

"Maa, Eiji," Fuji interrupted. "That might be a bit personal, ne?"

Kikumaru blinked. "I was just going to say that he has a crush on someone, which he does."

Momoshiro snorted. "Who's the unlucky guy?" he asked, crossing his right leg over his left.

Kaidoh blushed and covered it up by glaring at Momoshiro. "Go to hell!" he hissed, raising a fist in preparation to punch Momoshiro right in the face.

Inui decided to stop this fight before it started. "Very nice of you both to volunteer," he said, grinning evilly, emerald eyes glinting in the light. "I've just mixed up a new batch of Hyper Golden Remix Inui Juice."

Momoshiro and Kaidoh paled to a ghost white and bowed in unison, murmuring, "Sumimasen, sempai."

"Atobe was chosen because he can fight as well as he can control crowds, I suppose," mused Fuji, stroking his imaginary beard. "And Shishido for his teleportation."

"Yukimura is a strong sponge, so he's a good choice," added Kawamura, nodding. "A jack of all trades."

"No trade for a genuine article," said Oishi. "Sponges like Yukimura have many abilities in their arsenals, but not nearly as much skill as the original would have had."

"Everything in this world is equal," said Tezuka seriously. "Everything has its trade-off."

"Very cool of you, Mitsu," said Fuji, smiling as he laid his head on Tezuka's shoulder. He proceeded to whisper something most likely to be naughty, judging by Fuji's sly smile.

"A-Anyway," said Oishi, slightly uncomfortable. "They must have picked Akutsu and Akazawa in case of an early attack. Neither of them are very good with crowds, are they?"

"No," replied the entire house almost instantaneously.

"I'm assuming they picked Oishi because he's the strongest Healer around?" Kawamura asked, tilting his head. "Well, no, Sakuno-chan has more power, but Oishi is the most skilled."

"How so?" asked Momoshiro curiously.

"The older you are, the more control you have over your power. Also, the more power you have, the harder it is to control. Oishi has less power than Sakuno-san, yes, but she has a lot less control and, as such, is a lot more prone to accidents while healing. She is also a very timid and self-conscious girl, son once she makes a mistake, she will fumble and possibly be unable to regain her confidence, at least for a long time," Inui explained, once again reaching to push his glasses further up on his nose and huffing in annoyance when he failed to do so.

Kaidoh smiled slightly, a move that (to Kaidoh's relief) went largely unnoticed.

"I'm not sure why Echizen was chosen to go," said Kawamura, frowning. "It's not like he's very good with crowds, and they have enough fighters already."

"He blends in," suggested Fuji. "He doesn't seem like what humans think of Strangers. Akutsu, on the other hand…"

"It's because he can sense Stranger powers," said Tezuka. "In the event that someone gets lost or separated from the group, Echizen will be able to inform everyone of that fact."

"Smart," said Oishi, nodding.

Tezuka nodded.

"Ah," said Fuji. "That means 'thank you, it was my idea'."

"…"

"That means 'stop telling everyone what I really mean'."

"…" Tezuka glared at Fuji. Its meaning was clear to Fuji: _Stop or you will have no sex for a week._

Fuji's smile dropped. "And that… is something I will not translate."

"Smart," said Tezuka dryly.

* * *

Gakuto was sitting on the floor of Taki and Hiyoshi's room, watching and listening innocently as Jirou and Choutarou moped. He glanced at Taki a few feet away from him, and they exchanged exasperated looks.

You see, Atobe had just come back from the Leaders Meeting and announced that he and Ryou would be going on the mission to evacuate Hokkaido, and since neither Jirou nor Choutarou had known that their boyfriends had even signed up, they were pretty pissed about it.

Idiot semes. They were the macho type, all serious and heroic. Yuushi wasn't like that. Yuushi wasn't the type of guy who was really concerned about image or reputation or manliness. He was a sap. A huge sap. The man watched romantic chick flicks _and cried_, for God's sake! He was the least manly seme Gakuto had ever seen.

Yuushi had signed up too, but he'd announced it to Gakuto beforehand. It was really casual, the way he threw it out, like he was going shopping for groceries.

"_Gakuto, I'm going to sign up for the evacuation mission," he said one day when they were in their room, throwing on clothes after their morning shower. His tone was so casual Gakuto almost dismissed it without even processing it._

_Then it clicked._

"_What?" Gakuto had asked, eyes wide. "You… You're planning to go?"_

_Yuushi shrugged. "I want to help if I can," he said seriously. "My cousin, Kenya, he's on a sort of field trip to Hokkaido with his school. He's human," Yuushi clarified, catching Gakuto's slightly confused expression, "and I don't know when he'll be leaving. I want to go and find him and save him. He's… He's the only family I have left." _

_Yuushi's eyes were watering, and Gakuto, still shirtless, went over and gave him a hug. "It's okay," Gakuto had said to him soothingly. "I get it. I'm not mad. Save him, Yuushi."_

_Yuushi had sniffed, and then there was silence until,_

"_So since we're both already shirtless…"_

"_Yuushi, we just showered!"_

"_But–" _

"_No."_

"_Aw."_

Gakuto propped his head up on his hand and watched as Jirou made a face.

"I can't believe Keigo didn't tell me!" he grumbled. "I wouldn't be so mad if he'd just _told_ me he was going to sign up!"

"Yes," agreed Choutarou, in a rare, dark mood. "Ryou-san didn't tell me either."

Gakuto had the urge to raise his hand, declare that Yuushi _had_ told him and get the hell out of there. Apparently Jirou and Choutarou had decided that they needed some kind uke conference and dragged both Gakuto and Taki into Taki and Hiyoshi's room.

"Yes, semes are evil," said Taki boredly, rolling his eyes at Gakuto. "Can we go now?"

Both Jirou and Choutarou ignored him.

"And the worst part is that he doesn't even know what he's done wrong!" exclaimed Jirou, glaring at nothing in particular.

"Ryou knows," said Choutarou darkly. "But he won't apologize for it."

"That's even worse," said Gakuto, attempting to sound all honesty, he'd known that Ryou wouldn't apologize for anything he'd done; he was too damn proud for it, even after he'd done that dramatic show of cutting his hair off (don't ask, it's a _long_ story).

"Isn't it?" Choutarou agreed, frowning.

"So you'd forgive them if they apologized?" asked Taki.

"And gave good reason for neglecting to mention that they were going to risk their lives on a mission in fucking Hokkaido," said Choutarou viciously.

"Shit," said Gakuto, awed. "He swears! The kid swears!"

Choutarou glared at Gakuto. "I'm in a very bad mood at the moment, Gakuto-san," he said, sounding dangerous.

Gakuto bowed, his torso parallel to the ground. "Very sorry, Ohtori-sama," he said, only half-mockingly.

"Hey, I've got an idea," said Taki . "Why don't you let us out and we can talk to them for you?"

Taki was once again ignored. He made a face, and Gakuto patted his arm sympathetically. "Let me handle this, Taki," said Gakuto, winking.

He rose and stepped through the door like it was air and called out, "Ryou, Atobe, come here!"

Both appeared in an instant. "What?" they chorused, both wide eyed and eager for news about their boyfriends.

Gakuto sighed and shook his head. "You're pathetic," he said. "Don't even know how to tell your boyfriend that you might die next week. Geez."

"Get to the point, Mukahi," growled Atobe, eyes turning a dangerous shade of ice blue.

"Whoa, keep your hair on, Atobe. Listen up, you two. They're both still mad at you. Jirou's practically spitting fire and Choutarou just used profanity, so I'd say you're both in pretty hot water."

"What word?" asked Ryou. "Was it 'damn'? 'Shit?"

"'Fuck'," said Gakuto seriously.

Ryou hissed as if in pain. "Ah, crap."

"Yes. You guys have to give them a damn good explanation for your idiocy or you guys will never have sex again in your lives. Are we clear?"

Atobe and Ryou nodded solemnly. Gakuto nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now, go to your rooms and prepare a speech. They'll be with you shortly."

Gakuto stepped back through the door and plunged his fists through Jirou and Choutarou's bodies before either of them could say a word. He made his fist tangible when it emerged on the other side, creating a way for him to pull them both along with no way they could fight him off and phased all three of them through the door and wall.

Ryou and Atobe were already gone, so Gakuto lugged the two along. He dropped Choutarou off first, phasing the younger boy through the door, then did the same to Jirou in the room Jirou and Atobe shared. Gakuto dusted his hands off, grinned widely and nodded in satisfaction.

"Nicely done, Gakuto," said Taki, who had tagged along to make the phasing process easier for Gakuto.

"Yes, nicely done," purred a deeper, sexier voice in his ear as a chin rested on his shoulder. A tail with a spaded end wrapped around his left leg as two very warm arms wrapped around his waist.

"This is my cue to disappear," said Taki, rolling his eyes. "Can't you guys keep it in your pants for ten minutes?"

"I've kept it in my pants for the whole two and a half hours Gakuto was in there," retorted Yuushi. Gakuto could almost feel his pout. "I have needs."

Taki sighed and disappeared down the stairs. Gakuto grinned and turned his head to press a kiss to Yuushi's lips. "Come on, Yuushi," he said in a whisper, turning himself around to grip the tie around Yuushi's neck. "Let's make these bickering couples uncomfortable."

Yuushi grinned lewdly. "Sounds like a plan," he agreed, and allowed Gakuto to pull him into their room.


	16. Chapter 16

Sengoku wouldn't stop grinning.

Jin glared. "Piss off," he growled at the redhead.

"You like him, you like him, you really, really like him," sang Sengoku like an elementary school kid taunting his friend.

"Who?" grumbled Jin moodily, though he knew full well who Sengoku was referring to.

"Dan-kun, of course!" cried Sengoku cheerily.

"I don't," said Jin, his glare increasing in intensity, "and if you keep saying that I do, I'm going to break your legs."

Sengoku mocked terror. "Ooh, I'm so scared!" he trilled in a high, girlish voice. Jin growled and took a swipe at him. Sengoku jumped over it and just barely managed to duck under the follow up strike with a grin. "Oh, I guess I was lucky!" he exclaimed, jumping backwards to avoid the knife Jin pulled out of his hammerspace. Sengoku continued to avoid the attacks by hopping backwards until he came to a wall.

Jin pressed the knife to Sengoku's neck. "Piss me off again and you're dead," Jin hissed at the annoying bastard. Sengoku, to Jin's annoyance, wasn't even scared. He was _grinning_, for Christ's sake!

"Duly noted," said Sengoku anyway, and Jin released him because Jin had better things to do than to horse around with that idiot.

Sengoku rubbed the part of his neck that Jin's knife had pressed against. "Oh, your knife didn't leave a mark. Lucky!"

Jin could feel a headache coming on. Being around Sengoku always pissed Jin off, what with Sengoku's constant cries of "Lucky!" and other inane crap like that. It was only made worse when Dan came by and added to the annoyance with his unhalting chatter.

"Akutsu-sempai!"

Crap. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

"What do you want, brat?" Jin asked gruffly, using his best glare in hopes that it would scare the kid off.

It didn't. The brat just grinned wider, big brown eyes shining like no tomorrow. Jin knew it had been a long shot anyway.

"Akutsu-sempai, they want us at the general training grounds desu," said Dan, sounding excited. Jin could almost _see_ the kid's puppy tail wagging double time. "It's special training for the mission desu!"

Jin was pretty annoyed. Now he had to do extra training? Damn, if he'd known, he wouldn't have signed up for the damn mission in the first place.

"Good luck with that, you two," said Sengoku, clapping a hand on Jin's shoulder. "This mission might be good for you. Maybe you'll get lucky at some point of time."

The sexual innuendo flew over Dan's head. Many things did, but that wasn't hard when you were that short a guy. Jin was considerably taller, though, and the innuendo smacked him right in the face. "Can it, leprechaun," he growled, referring to Sengoku's red hair and Irish good luck charms.

"Why, desu?" asked Dan, blinking innocently. "He's wishing us luck in the mission desu, isn't he, sempai?"

"You'll understand when you're older," growled Jin awkwardly, not ready to explain the mechanics of sex to this innocent, naïve boy. What kind of fourteen year old boy didn't understand sex, anyway? Sex, the desire for it anyway, was practically the _only_ thing normal fourteen year old boys understood.

"Okay, desu!" smiled Dan, accepting the answer without question. "Shall we go now, Akutsu-sempai? The others won't like being made to wait."

"I don't give a shit about them," replied Jin in an ill-natured grumble. Nevertheless, he walked a little faster.

Jin was trying to lose the _kid_, not get to the training grounds faster. God, get off his back. Just because Dan was keeping up with Jin just fine didn't mean that Jin wasn't trying to lose him.

And anyone who said differently could just fuck off.

* * *

"We have assembled you here today to train you for the mission you are about to undergo in Hokkaido," announced Hanamura. "The training program we have today was designed by Ryuuzaki-sensei, the late Sakaki-sensei and yours truly, with help from Seigaku's Inui-kun."

Inui stepped forward. "This is going to be presented in the form of a game," he said, pushing his new glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose.

"A game?" asked Akazawa, slightly suspicious.

"Yes," said Inui. "This is a modified version of tag. The purpose of this game is to enhance your speed, evasion and stamina, and will be played twice a day for three alternate days."

"Yeah? Get to the objective already," complained Shishido impatiently.

"Patience," said Inui, pulling out a pitcher full of a bubbling fuchsia concoction that scared the crap out of everyone looking.

Upon catching sight of the thick, bubbling liquid, Echizen raised his hand. "I quit," he said, only half-joking. "It's not worth it."

"Unfortunately, that's not a possibility anymore," said Hanamura with a very fake sigh, resting her hand on her face. "You're in this whether you like it or not."

Inui grinned evilly. "Each of you will be given nine yellow stickers. Your job for this round is to stick one of these little stickers on a target of your choice. The Stranger who survives the longest gets a reward, but those who get tagged…" Inui held up the pitcher of juice, glasses glinting dangerously, "…get to drink this. The faster you are tagged, the more you have to drink, so please bear that in mind when playing this game."

"Sugoi desu!" said Dan, staring wide eyed at the pitcher in Inui's hands. "Akutsu-sempai, look! It's pink desu! Ne, Inui-san, is this really edible desu?"

"Not at all," said Oishi in a strangled sort of voice before Inui could reply. "This is not good, not good at all…!"

"Teaming up is allowed, but eventually there can only be one winner," said Inui, and everyone there could have sworn he was enjoying himself.

Echizen tugged the brim of his cap down over his eyes. "Oishi," he said seriously. Oishi turned to him at once. "Yes, Echizen?" he asked, equally serious.

"We have to win this."

"Yes. Then they will feel the pain we have suffered for so long…!"

"We will not lose," said Echizen, the fire of competition burning brightly in his eyes.

Oishi's eyes burned with the same level of intensity. "No, we will not," he said dramatically. "No matter what."

"Isn't that a bit dramatic for a game?" wondered Sakurai out loud. Ishida shrugged. "Maybe they're just competitive," he suggested. "They're from Seigaku House, there's bound to be a lot of attention for the spotlight over there."

Sakurai made a face. "Yeah, and back in Fudomine, we barely get any recognition. Nobody knows who we are!" he complained.

"Don't mind, Sakurai!" said Ishida determinedly. "We will gain recognition for our names through this mission!"

"Yes, yes we will!" cried Sakurai with much enthusiasm, tears streaming down his face.

Akazawa and Yukimura, the only two loners who were without a teammate from the same House, looked on, Akazawa befuddled and Yukimura slightly amused.

"Would you have been like that if you had your teammate Kaneda with you?" asked Yukimura, sounding polite.

Akazawa frowned. "What?"

Yukimura shrugged gracefully, tilting his head towards Akazawa thoughtfully. "You may be St Rudolph House's Leader, but when people think of St Rudolph, they rarely think of you, Akazawa-kun."

Akazawa blanched, which was very interesting to watch due to his dark skin tone. Nobody actually knew whether his tan was natural or due to his tennis career before his Stranger powers manifested. Akazawa routinely went to the human world, the surface, to practice his tennis with some of his old buddies. To hone his tennis skills, or to maintain his tan…?

Even the efforts of the Strangers' two data men, Inui Sadaharu and Yanagi Renji, were unable to unearth the true motive of Akazawa's surface visits.

But, of course, I digress.

"Who _do_ people think of when they think of St Rudolph?" asked Akazawa gruffly.

"Mizuki-kun and Yuuta-kun, of course," said Yukimura casually. "After all, Yuuta-kun is Fuji-kun's little brother, and Mizuki is one of the few people who have been able to anger Fuji Syuusuke-kun to such an overwhelming extent…"

Akazawa cringed just thinking about it. The Fuji-Mizuki match was one that would be put down in history as a lesson: never, ever, ever, _ever_ try to get Yuuta to learn a move that could potentially harm him unless you wanted Fuji Syuusuke to target you and beat you into the ground mercilessly.

Mizuki had to be put into a healing coma for a month before he was actually healed of all the physical injuries Fuji had left him with. The mental scarring, unfortunately, was out of anyone's power to erase and Mizuki had to live with it for life. From that day on, nobody ever underestimated the power of an overprotective older brother, especially if that older brother was Fuji Syuusuke.

(Coincidentally, confessions to Yukimura Miyu came to a complete halt on that day. The mindset was that feminine, girly boys that looked like they belonged to a women's beauty pageant were actually skilled, overprotective demons in disguise and would kill you for even looking at their little sibling funny. Fuji Syuusuke had proved it; Yukimura Seiichi was assumed to be cut from the same cloth and his sister was given a wide berth, to Seiichi's relief and Miyu's disappointment.)

"People know who I am," defended Akazawa. "Ask around. They know who the Leader of St Rudolph is. We're not like Yamabuki."

"I'm sure they do," said Yukimura with a charming smile.

Akazawa got the feeling that Yukimura was just humoring him. The idea saddened him, so Akazawa thought of his second in command, Nomura, who was barely able to wield a sword without trembling nervously and figured that if he was a relatively unknown Stranger, at least he was one who could fight.

* * *

"No powers," called Inui. "Not this time." He pulled out a whistle from his hammerspace and put it to his lips.

"Ready!" called Hanamura.

"Set!" called Ryuuzaki.

Inui blew the whistle. The ten Strangers leapt into action immediately. Shishido was the first to get a sticker on somebody, and that somebody happened to be Ishida. "No, Ishida!" exclaimed Sakurai as Ishida was transported out of the arena. Akutsu managed to slap a sticker on Sakurai's back when he wasn't looking and Sakurai joined his friend outside the ring.

"Way to go, Akutsu-sempai!" cheered Dan, ducking under somebody's stickered finger. Echizen, who was only slightly taller than Dan, went in for the kill and stuck a yellow circle right in the middle of Dan's chest. Akutsu was briefly alarmed as Dan disappeared in a beam of light, but relaxed as he saw the kid reappear on the sidelines.

The remaining seven were doing rather well, dodging attacks nimbly and narrowly avoiding the yellow stickers. Shishido was owning the battlefield. This was a test of speed, and Shishido was one of the fastest Strangers in Kanto. Even without using his teleportation power, it seemed like he was teleporting with the speed he was moving at.

Oishi and Echizen had apparently identified Shishido as a threat and were working towards his exit from the ring. Echizen followed the moving blur that was Shishido and tackled it from the side. Shishido quickly overpowered the smaller boy and pressed a little yellow circle to Echizen's forehead.

Shishido heard someone coming up behind him, undoubtedly Oishi, Echizen's partner, so he rolled forward into the beam Echizen was engulfed in, passing through harmlessly like he knew he would. Oishi's attack missed, but Oishi quickly retreated to continue watching Shishido carefully.

Shishido decided to go for the closer victims first, and ran up to Akazawa, who was the least likely to be able to pull one over Shishido and ducked to the ground as Akazawa attacked. Shishido took a leaf out of Gakuto's book and rolled through Akazawa's legs, rising easily into a stand behind the taller boy. From there, it was a simple matter of turning on his heel and sticking a sticker on Akazawa's back.

Meanwhile, Yukimura and Atobe were battling it out, and one of them had somehow managed to get Akutsu right over his bellybutton in the middle of the fight. Oishi was sneaking up on Atobe from behind so Shishido decided to go for Yukimura.

Unfortunately, both Atobe and Yukimura heard their pursuers approaching, and dodged to their respective rights. Shishido tagged Atobe in the shoulder and Oishi got Yukimura in the hollow of his collarbone. The beams of light flared before their eyes as Oishi and Shishido faced off.

"I will not drink that juice," muttered Oishi to himself. Shishido smirked cockily and said, "Well, you're going to have to, Oishi, because I'm not losing this game."

Shishido attacked lightning fast, but Oishi was dodging the attacks rather well. His usual training partner was Kikumaru Eiji; of course he'd have gotten used to dodging speedy attacks. Oishi waited and watched for an opening.

There! Oishi immediately peeled a sticker off his sheet and went in for the kill.

Shishido narrowly avoided the yellow sticker. His usual training partner was Ohtori Choutarou, who, despite his large size, was able to deliver attacks at an amazingly high speed, so naturally Shishido had gotten used to watching out for an attack and avoiding it in a split second.

Shishido then utilized Oishi's distraction to slap a yellow sticker on Oishi's outstretched arm.

The taller boy, with a look of absolute horror on his face, disappeared in the beam of light that reminded Shishido of that show '_Star Trek'_.

"Beam me up, Scotty," said Shishido humorously, and then he disappeared in a beam of light.

* * *

On the outside of the circular arena, Atobe raised a thin eyebrow. "Scotty?"

Shishido frowned. "You never saw Star Trek?"

"Ah," said Yukimura. "I thought the phrase was familiar."

"Star Trek?" wondered Ishida. Sakurai's jaw dropped in horror. "You've never seen Star Trek?"

Ishida blinked. "What's that, an anime?"

"Sacrilege!" exclaimed Sakurai. "When we get home, you're watching every single episode with me."

"But before that," interrupted Inui, grinning evilly as he pulled two pitchers of the juice out of his hammerspace and held it out to Ishida and Sakurai. Sakurai's pitcher was only half full.

"Before that, you get to have some of my special Inui Juice Deluxe."

Ishida and Sakurai exchanged nervous glances as they both took their pitchers hesitantly.

"If I don't make it out of this alive," said Ishida nervously, "tell Akira that he should stop chasing Ann-chan and that he's made Shinji wait for too long already."

"I doubt I'll survive," replied Sakurai, eyeing the bubbling juice, "but if I do and you don't, I'll be sure to tell him."

"Enough theatrics," said Atobe impatiently. "Ore-sama is getting impatient with you. Just drink it already. How bad can it be?"

"You have no idea," Echizen and Oishi chorused darkly.

Ishida and Sakurai raised the pitchers to their lips and knocked it back like it was beer. Immediately, their faces turned horrified and disgusted, but they both stayed strong and kept going. Sakurai couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed, the almost empty pitcher falling to the ground with a thunk.

Ishida wrenched his eyes shut and continued gulping it down. He had pride, he had to finish the juice and survive– for Sakurai.

"W-Wow," said Oishi, staring at Ishida. "He's… he's downing the whole pitcher!"

Ishida gulped down the last mouthful of Inui Juice Deluxe and thrust the pitcher back at Inui, panting heavily. Inui took the pitcher and stowed it away calmly. Ishida's face turned white and his eyeballs rolled back into his head, then he fainted.

Atobe, Shishido and Akazawa shrank back, blanching in mild horror. Even Akutsu seemed slightly disturbed. Dan tilted his head, blinking, but Yukimura was completely unaffected.

"Dan-kun," said Inui, handing him two glasses full of Inui Juice Deluxe. "It's your turn."

Dan took the two cups with a quiet, "Okay, desu," and bit his lips nervously, then raised one cup to his lips and took a sip. There was a pause, and then he slowly swallowed. "It's… not that bad, desu," he said, frowning as he pondered the taste. "A bit strange, desu, but not… horrible." That said, he continued to down the whole glass and then the other with barely a grimace.

Everyone stared at him. "He's just like Fuji," said Oishi in awe.

"No, Fuji actually enjoys the taste whereas Dan-kun is tolerant of it. Like Tezuka," Inui added as an afterthought, and then brought out another two glasses of juice, one cup full to the brim and the second half-empty.

"Echizen," said Inui. "This is your dose."

Echizen took it hesitantly. Inui handed Akazawa a cup of juice, Akutsu two-thirds of a cup, Atobe and Yukimura half a cup each and Oishi a mere third of a cup.

Inui took out his own bottle of juice and raised it in a toast. "Kampai," he said, grinning.

"Kampai," murmured the others not nearly as cheerfully, and they all drank it together.

* * *

"!"

* * *

Eiji's ears twitched as he looked up from where he was curled up as a little kitten on Kaidoh's lap. Kaidoh was one of his favorite people in the house. Eiji had liked him from the moment Kaidoh stepped in the house. Not as much as he liked Oishi, obviously, or Fujiko, but still up there.

Eiji jumped off of Kaidoh's lap and morphed back into his humanoid form. "Ne, Kaidoh," he said. "Inui went to train the people going on the mission, right?"

"Ah," said Kaidoh, looking up from his book. "Yes."

"Did he mix any juice this morning?"

Kaidoh paled, and Eiji guessed that Inui had tested his new torture device on Kaidoh.

"Y-Yes. He called it… Inui Juice Deluxe," said Kaidoh as if the words left a bad taste in his mouth. The name alone was enough to make them both shudder.

"Poor Oishi and Ochibi," sighed Eiji. "I can hear the screams from here…"

Momoshiro, who had just walked into the room, suddenly turned green and ran to the bathroom. Kaidoh blinked. "What's wrong with him?"

"Empathy," said Fuji as he and Tezuka walked in. "Momo feels what people around him feel, and if ten Strangers are taking Inui Juice…"

"…He's definitely going to throw up," finished Kaidoh in understanding.

Eiji morphed back into a kitten and scaled the furniture to leap onto Tezuka's head. Tezuka's hair was soft and comfortable, and it annoyed Tezuka, which was always fun to do. Plus, it would help Eiji train his balance, and also help Tezuka train his balance, which was always Eiji's excuse.

Fuji laughed and petted Eiji fondly as Eiji curled on top of Tezuka's head. "I suppose Eiji likes your head just as much as I do, Mitsu," he said. Tezuka ignored him and took Eiji's actions in stride, maintaining his balance as he sat on the loveseat with the human newspapers.

Fuji sat next to Tezuka and said to Eiji, "I think he's getting used to this pouncing."

Eiji mewed in agreement.


	17. Chapter 17

It was only two hours later that the ten Strangers assigned to the mission had to play the game again.

"This time you are allowed to use your powers, and there will be no more stickers," announced Hanamura, adjusting her glasses. "Instead, you will be considered out if you fall to the ground and stay there for three seconds or longer for any reason at all, even if you trip over your own shoelaces by accident. Deliberately sitting or crouching does not count. "

Sadaharu pulled out a water bottle of clear liquid that nobody believed to be water. "This time, only the winner gets exception from drinking this, my special Shirozu."

"Shirozu…?" they repeated, grimacing.

"It's not white, though," Akazawa pointed out, frowning.

"It was white at the time of its creation, which is to say, when I named it," said Sadaharu. "But over time it achieved this clear, water-like transparence. I kept Shirozu because it rolls off the tongue nicely."

"Shouldn't you be more concerned with consistency to the facts?" wondered Yukimura. "Renji would never have done something like that."

Sadaharu tensed slightly, almost unnoticeable. Renji… Yes. It was true. Renji would never have named something Shirozu when it was neither white nor made only of vinegar, but Sadaharu was different. Sadaharu was Sadaharu and Renji was Renji. If Yukimura thought that they were the same person just because they had the same sort of style, he could just shove those words up his–

Civil, Sadaharu. Civil.

"Well, Yukimura, you'll find that Renji and I are different people with different personalities," said Sadaharu calmly. "I like to think of myself as the more fun one between the two of us, though there is no doubt that Renji is smarter than I am."

Yukimura inclined his head in a gesture that, according to the data Sadaharu had gathered, meant, 'Good answer.' Yukimura was a lot like Fuji in ways besides their feminine appearances concealing underlying strength. One of these similarities was their mutual appreciation for playing mind games with anyone and everyone they met. Yukimura seemed to have been testing Sadaharu with his seemingly casual comment and was satisfied with Sadaharu's reaction.

Genii. Honestly. Just because they were naturally gifted with the power to see through people and actions…

"So," said Hanamura cheerily, clapping her hands together. "Shall we get started?"

* * *

They were in the arena once again, standing with their backs against the invisible dome that was a force field and shield of sorts around them. "Ready," called Hanamura.

"Set," continued Ryuuzaki.

"Fight!" declared Inui, and each and every one of the ten Strangers leaped into action.

Atobe immediately threw ice at Shishido's face in hopes of getting him by surprise (and most probably getting revenge for what Atobe saw as treason in the earlier game) but Shishido was quick as always and teleported out of the way easily. The sparkles he left helped to blind some of them and Taichi blinked as fast as he could to get them to go away.

Taichi decided that it was time to show them all what he could do when he put his mind to it. It was time to show Akutsu that he wasn't completely useless on the battlefield.

Taichi utilized his diminutive size to sneak up on taller opponents, such as Ishida, who, as an added bonus, looked like he had a soft spot for cute things. Taichi turned on his charm as he tugged on Ishida's sleeve, widening his eyes and letting his bottom lip wobble most pathetically.

"Ishida-san," he said in a whine. "Sakurai-san is trying to bully me desu."

Ishida tried to resist, really he did. Taichi could see the strain clearly; Ishida's temple was particularly eye-catching with that thick vein pulsing in the corner. But, of course, he fell, just like all the others before him, as Taichi summoned tears to his eyes and started to sob.

Ishida's eyes immediately blanked over and then refocused sharply, looking completely enraged.

"WHERE IS HE? I'LL KILL HIM!" declared Ishida in a ferocious roar. "SAKURAI, YOU BASTARD!"

He charged at Sakurai with a loud battle cry, and Sakurai, bewildered, had barely enough time to blink and say, "I-Ishida?" before Ishida tackled him and gave him a punch to the face so hard that Sakurai's nose broke and several teeth dislodged.

Ishida rose and glared down at Sakurai menacingly. Sakurai, stunned, gaped at his usually gentle friend, not bothering to get up off of the ground. Three seconds later, the beam of light they'd become familiar with beamed Sakurai out.

Taichi winced and felt bad for Sakurai, but he knew that Hanamura was an experienced Healer and would have poor Sakurai's face healed up. The reason Taichi had picked Sakurai as his target was because Sakurai and Ishida were obviously close friends (or something more, maybe…?) and Sakurai probably wouldn't have anticipated an attack from Ishida this early in the game.

Taichi's power seemed to have worn off on Ishida, who was staring at the fist that he had punched Sakurai with in what seemed to be horror. Taichi decided to put him out of his misery and let him apologize to Sakurai. He sneaked up to Ishida and absorbed some of Ishida's power, then used Ishida's super strength to take Ishida's knee out with a swift punch.

Ishida shouted at the unexpected pain as his knee gave way and he fell to the ground; Taichi had been quick with his movements. "Ishida-san, I'm sorry desu," said Taichi, genuinely sorry. Hanamura would put Ishida's knee right again, too, but right now Taichi had other things to worry about.

Turning quickly, Taichi caught the punch Akazawa had thrown at him and flipped Akazawa over his head easily. Luckily, Ishida had already disappeared, so he was spared the weight of Akazawa landing harshly. Taichi knew that it had only been that easy because Akazawa hadn't been expecting it, so he turned on his charm and ran to Akazawa's side.

"I'm so sorry desu, Akazawa-san!" Taichi said in a gasp, eyes wide. "I never meant to hurt you desu; I just forgot that I had Ishida-san's super strength desu."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," grumbled Yoshiro grudgingly, not believing the words yet finding himself unable to fault such an innocent looking kid. He opened his eyes as he attempted to get up, and suddenly found himself blushing at Dan's proximity. How had he never noticed how cute Dan was? Those huge eyes and that lithe body…

"Akazawa-san? I think you should lie down for a while desu, in case I injured you during the fall," suggested Dan, looking worried.

And that voice! My God, that voice! It was like the voice of an angel fallen from heaven…

"Yeah," said Yoshiro, even though something in the back of his mind was telling him not to follow the voice's instructions. "Yeah, I think I'll lie down for a little bit more."

Dan smiled, and Yoshiro felt like he'd died and gone to heaven. He could see the gates of St Peter opening and he could even see the Light–

Then all of a sudden he was outside the arena, on the sidelines, blinking in confusion.

"You too?" asked Ishida glumly.

"What?" asked Yoshiro, blinking.

"Dan's infatuation ability," said Ishida, sulking. "He got me to attack Sakurai for him."

"Sakurai didn't see it coming?" asked Yoshiro in surprise. Sakurai was a master at strategy due to his foresight and his ability to predict his opponents' moves.

Ishida shook his head. "Sakurai wasn't focused on either of us," he said, sounding miserable. "And he doesn't predict what others do under someone else's influence. He didn't think Dan had it in him to actually use his power like this and obviously I would never have done a thing like this if I wasn't under Dan's influence."

"That's a scary power, the ability to induce infatuation," said Yoshiro grimly.

"Yes," replied Ishida, just as grim.

* * *

Ryou was having an even easier time avoiding attacks since he was allowed to use his power, but since everyone had seen him as a threat, they had all started to gang up on him. Apparently Akutsu, Oishi, Echizen, Atobe and Yukimura had wordlessly formed a temporary alliance, because Oishi was going around healing every one of them as soon as they fell. Ryou could understand that; the more of them there were, the easier it was going to be to shut Ryou out.

So Ryou kept avoiding attacks left and right. He wanted to trap Oishi in a force field, or maybe trap someone in a force field after they'd fallen, but the constant attacks made it hard for him to stay still long enough to aim his power properly.

Ryou had had enough. He teleported across the field, to where Dan was leaning against the dome wall casually.

"Hello, Shishido-san!" Dan said in a way that reminded Ryou of Choutarou. "You're doing really well, Shishido-san!"

Suddenly Ryou wasn't thinking of Choutarou anymore. His attention was focused on Dan, only Dan. Dan was cute and small and generally that wasn't really Ryou's type of man, but he could make an exception for Dan…

No! Choutarou. Ryou had to remember Choutarou.

"Shishido-san," said Dan, in a voice once again eerily similar to Choutarou's as he bit his lip nervously. "I need your help."

Ryou was struck with déjà vu.

_"Ohtori, I need your help."_

_"…Why, Shishido-san?"_

_"Because… because you're the only one who can help me."_

_"I don't know. You'll never be able to do it."_

_"I will. I'll be the only one to ever have done it. And you'll have helped. Please, Choutarou."_

_"Don't call me that."_

_"Only if you agree to help me."_

_"…How exactly am I supposed to help you?"_

_"Attack me as a cheetah. I'm going to train my speed and defense."_

_"What? Are you crazy? I could kill you!"_

_"Jirou can heal me. Come on, Choutarou."_

_"Stop calling me that."_

_"Please."_

_"…Fine."_

Taichi took advantage of Shishido's obvious distraction to take Shishido's face in his hands and look deep into his eyes. "Please," he said softly, desperately, applying to Shishido's protective nature. Shishido's eye jumped involuntarily as he fought it. Taichi summoned tears and thanked the gods his eyes were almost the same shade of brown as Ohtori's. "Please," he repeated.

If Shishido didn't fall under soon, Taichi would have to abandon ship. The others were making their way across the field swiftly, and soon would be near enough to attack. Even now, Atobe was throwing icicles their way, but Taichi had sponged off some of Shishido's power and used it to create a weak force field around them. It wouldn't hold for long.

"Okay," said Shishido suddenly, his resolve crumbling to dust.

Taichi smiled. "I'm glad desu," he said. "I'm going to join them desu, and when I do, I want you to create a force field around us, to keep us all in there desu."

Shishido frowned. "But then you might get hurt," he said, sounding worried. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"If they do hurt me, you will be here to avenge me desu. Sometimes, sacrifices need to be made to win a war desu," said Taichi sagely, then he ran into the midst of oncoming Strangers.

Ryou wiped a tear away from his eye. Now there was one noble man.

* * *

The force field came up around them as soon as Dan entered range. Jin frowned. Obviously the kid was doing some manipulating, but what was his objective?

Dan went straight for Echizen.

"Ne, Echizen-kun," he said in a voice that Jin had trouble not feeling jealous over. By the looks of things, all of them were feeling jealous about it.

"E-Eh?" asked Echizen, obviously as captivated as the rest of them were by Dan.

"I was wondering if… if you could lie down for a bit?"

Echizen's eyes lost focus, then quickly regained focus. "No," he said. "I see what you're doing."

Dan had obviously turned the charm up a few notches, because everyone fell under the spell almost immediately and turned to Echizen as if he was crazy. "How could you deny Dan-kun?" asked Oishi in horror.

"He's using his power to make you all infatuated with him," said Echizen. "Here, I'll show you…"

He reached for Oishi's arm, presumably to degenerate Dan's power over him, but Jin quickly dashed forward and slammed a wooden mallet over his head.

Echizen sank to the ground and Dan quickly created a force field around him and turned the charm up yet another notch as everyone started towards their fallen comrade. "He'll be fine desu," said Dan cheerily.

Naturally, every one of them believed him, and relaxed.

The beam of light materialized and Echizen disappeared in its light.

Dan had a plan. Jin could see it in the brat's eyes. "What're you planning, kid?" asked Jin gruffly in a low voice.

"Forgive me, Akutsu-sempai, desu," said Dan, sounding truly apologetic, but before Jin could say anything, Dan had pressed his lips to Jin's.


	18. Chapter 18

It wasn't terrible, the kiss; Jin had had worse ones before. That girl in Jin's class first year of middle school had been worse. Certainly Dan was more experienced than her, because for some reason, this kiss was actually rather… nice.

Fuck. Nice? It wasn't nice! It was disgusting! It was horrible! It was– it was–

It was fucking _wonderful_, Jin decided as Dan slipped him tongue. Fuck this.

Jin kissed back, nipping Dan's tongue none too gently but running his own tongue over the injury to soothe the slight pain. Dan let out a little moan of surprise and, surprisingly, lust. Jin vaguely noted that the force field around them had disappeared.

Then somebody pulled Dan off of Jin and punched Jin in the cheek. Surprisingly, it was Yukimura.

"Fuck," said Jin, feeling his jaw. Distantly, he saw what he assumed to be Shishido getting beamed out of the arena.

"Nobody kisses him," growled Yukimura. Oishi and Atobe nodded gravely behind him, both glaring daggers and sinking into a tense position, ready to fight.

Jin inclined his head and glared down at them. "Bring it on, bastards," he replied, muscles tensing.

Yukimura bent low to the ground, then pushed off and pounced at Jin, morphing into a beautiful, midnight blue panther as he did so. Jin barely jumped out of the way in time. Atobe and Oishi gave uncharacteristic war cries and charged at him, looking mad with love.

Then suddenly, everybody froze. That noise, that pitiful sniffling…

It was the unmistakable sound of someone crying.

All four of them turned to Dan immediately, each one of them concerned. Sure enough, Dan was crying and sobbing and sitting on the ground in a pitiful heap.

"What's wrong, Dan?" asked Oishi, snapping out of the stupor first, rushing to his side. "Is anything hurt?"

Dan sobbed and sniffled and nodded, gesturing to his bleeding left knee weakly. Jin found it pathetic, but the sight tugged at his heartstrings anyway. Somehow, Jin got the feeling that this whole scene was an elaborate ploy by Dan. The tears looked… fake to Jin for some reason.

Atobe, Oishi and Yukimura didn't see it Jin's way, probably thanks to the infatuation Dan had them under.

"Y-Yukimura-san pushed me to the ground earlier desu," said Dan, his lip wobbling. Jin saw through this excuse easily; obviously Dan had deliberately gotten up and sat back down after the pushing. If he'd done as he'd implied and sat there since Yukimura pushed him out of the way, it wouldn't have been deliberately sitting down, and he would have been beamed out.

The others lapped it up. Infatuation had obviously clouded their judgment; they were all pretty smart people normally.

Yukimura morphed back into his humanoid shape. "I hurt you, Dan-kun," he said, as if unable to believe his own words. "I… I have done the unthinkable. I forfeit!" he called raising his hand miserably. The usual pillar of light beamed him out of the arena.

"Let me heal that for you," said Oishi gently. Dan, sniffling gently, allowed him to, and smiled gratefully when Oishi was done.

"Thank you desu," he said to Oishi. "If… you could just do one more favor for me?"

"Anything," promised Oishi.

"Me too," said Atobe, eager to please. Jin noted the drop of Atobe's usual '-sama' suffix at the end of his referral to himself.

Dan smiled. "If you could both just lie down for a few seconds…"

Of course. Lying down hadn't been mentioned, and technically it wasn't deliberate anyway, since Dan was really the one making them lie down. It figured Dan would do some wimpy crap like that; he never did like hurting people.

Atobe and Oishi obliged happily, and three seconds later they were beamed out as well.

Dan turned to Jin with a genki-genki, sparkly smile. "Did I do well, Akutsu-sempai?" he asked, eyes wide and hopeful.

"That was the most pathetic strategy I've ever seen," snorted Jin.

Of course, Dan accurately interpreted Jin's sentence and beamed, though Jin noticed that he looked tired. "I'm glad, desu," he said, yawning. Dan rubbed his eye cutely and said, "I know Akutsu-sempai thinks that the infatuation power is useless, but it's not desu."

"You know we have to fight now, right?" said Jin quite unnecessarily.

Dan was getting sleepier by the moment. He blinked blearily, then said sleepily, "I don't want to fight desu."

"Well you're going to have to. Wake up."

Dan defied this order by collapsing to the ground. Jin didn't bother checking the kid's pulse or whatever; the kid was obviously just tired from using so much power and had passed out because of it. Plus, in three seconds, proper Healers would be checking him.

The light beamed Dan out, and Jin wondered briefly why they didn't just beam them both out at the same time.

"You have to say it!" shouted Shishido at Jin, grinning. "If you don't, I'm going to leave you in there!"

Jin glared at Shishido, promising lots of pain when he got out. "Beam me up now, Scotty, or I'll get Dan to make you commit seppuku when I get out," said Jin, glaring darkly, and 'Scotty' obliged.

* * *

"Nya! What's this about you falling in love with someone else, Oishi?" asked Eiji furiously as he pounced on Syuuichirou.

"E-E-Eiji!" stammered Syuuichirou, who had fallen to the ground under the weight of Eiji's attack. "I-I-It wasn't like t-that!"

"Oh, really? Then how was it like?" demanded Eiji, glaring.

"Dan-kun, he used his infatuation power over me. I- I'm sorry. I was weak, I fell for it. I'm sorry," said Syuuichirou dejectedly. Surely, surely Eiji was going to hate him now. If only Syuuichirou had tried harder to resist, like Akutsu who had been completely unaffected when Dan used his power.

To his surprise, Eiji laughed. "Don't be so serious, Oi-shi," he said gently, bringing his face close to Syuuichirou's and smiling. "I know. I knew the whole time."

Syuuichirou couldn't stop his jaw from falling open. "Then why–?" he began, bewildered.

"Because you're fun to tease, nya," replied Eiji, kissing Syuuichirou lightly.

"D-Don't make jokes like that!" protested Syuuichirou. Eiji laughed. "I'll overlook your little crush if you promise me that that will never really happen."

"Of course it won't," said Syuuichirou softly, gripping Eiji's waist.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because… because I love you, you know?" Syuuichirou admitted, blushing faintly.

Eiji's eyes widened, and he seemed taken aback. Syuuichirou watched him anxiously. What if Eiji didn't feel the same way? What if Eiji rejected him and things got awkward between them?

"Ne, Syuuichirou," said Eiji, smiling gently. "Stop worrying." He lightly pressed a padded finger to the space between Syuuichirou's eyebrows, a place that furrowed when Syuuichirou worried.

"S-Sorry," said Syuuichirou nervously.

Eiji smiled and kissed him. It was a kiss full of feeling and Syuuichirou could feel happiness and lust and what certainly _felt_ like love in it. Syuuichirou smiled into the kiss and responded wholeheartedly.

It seemed to last forever, because that kiss continued into another, and another, and another. It wasn't until an embarrassed and blushing Kaidoh hissed that they broke apart. "E-Excuse me," he mumbled awkwardly.

Syuuichirou and Eiji exchanged glances, and then burst into laughter simultaneously. They'd forgotten that they were in the middle of the upstairs hallway where anyone could have walked in on them.

"Sorry, Kaidoh," said Syuuichirou as Eiji got up off of Syuuichirou and offered a hand to him. Syuuichirou took it and allowed himself to be hauled up off the floor. "We got carried away."

Kaidoh hissed in embarrassment. "Don't be sorry," he said gruffly. "Don't be sorry about love. Just… please do that in your room next time."

It was a surprisingly sappy and romantic thing for Kaidoh to say, and even Kaidoh seemed to acknowledge that. "E-Excuse me," he said again, bowing as he walked past them and disappeared into his and Inui's room.

Eiji tilted his head. "When do you think they're going to drop the act and admit already?" he wondered out loud.

"Knowing Inui, soon," replied Syuuichirou. Inui was one of those rare people who would actually confess to someone the moment he was certain of his feelings, without really taking into account the other person's feelings. Most didn't confess due to the fear of rejection, but Inui was a frank sort of person and wasn't very concerned with the way you viewed him.

Not that Inui had ever seemed to feel the urge to confess his undying love for anyone in front of Syuuichirou. No, Syuuichirou had found out about this through Inui himself, who had told them once when they were in a truth or dare circle.

"I think they'll be cute together, nya," said Eiji, nodding decisively. Syuuichirou raised his eyebrows and didn't reply. Eiji heard him anyway.

"Nya, Oishi! I know that they don't have the best looking faces in the world, but I do think they'll be very cute together!" Eiji defended. "They're both very sweet."

That, Syuuichirou couldn't contest. "They'll be good for each other," said Syuuichirou, smiling fondly. Inui, he knew, had gone through some sort of hurt when he was younger. Syuuichirou could feel the pain of a once-broken heart under any physical pain Inui had whenever Syuuichirou healed him. Emotional pain was the type of pain Syuuichirou hated the most; it was the one type of pain Syuuichirou couldn't heal, couldn't help with. It was just… there to stay until time and a new love came by.

For Inui, the pain had been there for too long, and Syuuichirou was truly glad for his friend that someone had finally come along for Inui to love and be loved in return by.

The only thing was that… well, Kaidoh was a sensitive fellow who was quick to feel emotion. He was easily embarrassed and usually burst out angrily when he was embarrassed. Inui, who was direct and sometimes tactless, would have to tread carefully with Kaidoh. In a way, Inui's bluntness might do the trick. Kaidoh was the sort to fidget through a long speech as to why he was loved, and a short, simple, "I love you," would probably be the most effective.

Hopefully, Inui knew this too. There was a fifty-fifty chance of this happening; Inui was good with calculations and behavior, but he wasn't nearly as good with, well, emotion.

"Nya, Oishi, you're worrying," said Eiji, poking him in the forehead gently with his padded fingertip. "Don't worry, nya! They'll be fine."

Syuuichirou took one last look at Inui and Kaidoh's door worriedly. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, they'll be fine."

Syuuichirou sincerely hoped so, anyway.

* * *

Kaoru really_, really, __**really**_liked Inui. There was something about him that really attracted Kaoru to the taller boy. Kaoru wasn't weirded out as you might have thought; he lived in a house full of homosexuals. It wasn't something he wasn't used to, and he knew for a fact that Inui was homosexual. So the chances of Inui liking him back was a lot higher now, really, but Kaoru was still scared.

Why was he scared? Why couldn't he dredge up the confidence to just _confess_ already and get it off his chest? Argh.

"Kaidoh," said Inui into the silence that had previously been Inui sitting cross-legged on his bed, reading something on his computer and Kaoru, lying flat on his own bed, trying to gather to confidence to just spill his guts already.

"Yes, Inui-san?" he asked quietly, turning his attention to Inui.

"I don't mean to be forward, Kaidoh," said Inui, pushing his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose, "but I like you."

Kaoru was stunned. Like? Inui… liked him? Surely this was too good to be true. Kaoru was just being optimistic. Nevertheless, Kaoru gave an answer that would apply both ways. "I like you too," he said shyly, looking away in embarrassment.

There was the creak of Inui's bed springs. Inui had gotten up and was apparently coming towards Kaoru because as Inui spoke, his voice came closer. "Kaidoh, you have to understand that when I say like, I do not mean as friends."

Kaoru's heart was beating wildly in his chest and he was blushing so hard his face could have boiled water, but he couldn't bear to look up at Inui. "I- I know," Kaoru said in reply, staring at a speck on the otherwise spotless green wall.

Kaoru felt Inui's weight on the bed beside him. "Well, that's good," said Inui, gently placing a hand on Kaoru's cheek and moving Kaoru's face towards him. Inui seemed rather pleased at Kaoru's brightly blushing face as he said, "Or else this would have been quite inappropriate."

Before Kaoru could ask him, "What would have been inappropriate?" Inui had already pressed his lips to Kaoru's gently.

* * *

...I feel stupid. I ended the last one with a kiss too! -facepalm- Completely unintentional, I promise. I only just noticed! But, uh, leave a review anyway, and I apologize for the utter crap you've been reading because it's very long and rambly, more so than it _really_ needs to be. It's NaNo; I have to pull it longer than Merlin's beard.


	19. Chapter 19

"Akutsu-sempai," said Dan hesitantly. "A-About what happened… in the arena…?"

Jin glanced at him. "What about it?"

Dan got flustered and started stammering. Jin inwardly snorted. This was the boy who had just made eight older, stronger Strangers believe that they were in love with him and made them do his bidding. Now, when talking about a simple kiss _that Dan himself had initiated, mind you,_ he turned redder than a tomato and was suddenly unable to string two words together.

Jin took it upon himself to make the first move this time. He pinned Dan beneath him by his wrists on Jin's bed and kissed the smaller boy rather roughly. Dan made a surprised noise, but kissed Jin back eagerly. It felt right, it felt natural, and Jin wryly thought that the suggestion his brain had provided about the kiss earlier being a fluke was obviously untrue.

This time, it was Jin who slipped his tongue into the kiss, taking the time to explore Dan's mouth. It was a strange feeling for Jin, actually _wanting_ to kiss someone instead of just wanting to _get to the good part already_. Jin had always been all about the sex; he hadn't quite enjoyed the feel of lip gloss on his lips, and unfortunately all the girls he'd ever kissed or fooled around with were avid lip gloss wearers.

The best part was that Dan was actually trying to fight back. Jin's problem with most girls was that they were too… submissive. Of course, Dan had no chance of actually claiming dominance, but it was the fact that Jin was probably kissing hard enough to bruise, but Dan wasn't _complaining_ that was really firing up Jin's libido. In fact, Dan was being fucking _encouraging_, moaning in his mouth and catching Jin's tongue in his teeth harshly, biting down just hard enough to really make Jin _feel_ something without causing bleeding.

Then, suddenly, Dan rolled them over so that Jin was on the bottom and straddled Jin's waist, panting heavily but wearing a sexy grin Jin didn't know was in Dan's range of expressions. It was a mixture of adoration and lust and shyness, and Jin honestly didn't know what to think when his heart started beating wildly in his chest at the sight of it. Jin decided to blame hormones.

It was then, after being rolled over, that Jin realized that Dan… really wasn't a little kid anymore. Sure, he might still be pretty short and had that naïve innocence about him that made people think he was twelve instead of fourteen, but…

Dan had to have grown up, at least a little, if he was going around kissing scary-looking dudes three years older than him and then giving them that _goddamned sexy grin_ afterwards.

Dan laughed and bent down to kiss Jin again. This time it was softer, and try as Jin might to liven things up, Dan wouldn't have any of that and pulled away. "I'm happy desu, Jin-sempai," he whispered, those huge eyes shining.

"This doesn't mean anything," growled Jin, though even to his ears they sounded untrue. Dan, with his uncanny knack for seeing through Jin's words, simply smiled wider and nodded. "Of course it doesn't desu," he agreed, all genki-genki sparkles.

"Shut up," grumbled Jin. It was an empty threat, and they both knew it.

"Make me," purred Dan provocatively, though he was blushing deeply as he said it. Jin growled in lust as he felt heat rushing south. He rolled them over swiftly and crushed his lips onto Dan's, almost smiling at the moan the younger boy released.

Almost.

* * *

It was Monday, and it was almost time for the ten Strangers assigned to the task to depart for Hokkaido.

Eiji threw his arms around Oishi's neck and hugged him tightly. "I'll miss you, nya," he whispered softly. Then he let go, all too soon, and said with a grin, "Don't die out there, Oishi, nya!"

Oishi smiled. "Don't worry," he assured Eiji. "I won't. I love you, Eiji."

"I love you too, Syuuichirou," said Eiji in a rare moment of quiet sadness and worry. "Take care of yourself, nya."

"I will."

"Promise to come back alive and in one piece?"

"I promise." And he really meant it.

* * *

Choutarou and Shishido were locked in a tight embrace and didn't seem to be letting go any time soon. Wakashi looked on uncomfortably as they whispered reassurances into each other's ears. Haginosuke obviously thought it was cute or sweet or some other adjective Wakashi would not have used.

"Stop being so tense," said Haginosuke, crossing his legs and leaning back on the bench they were sitting on. "Better than the other side, yeah?"

Wakashi grimaced as he turned to see Atobe and Jirou kissing like no tomorrow.

"You can't blame them," said Haginosuke. "Atobe and Shishido… they might die out there," he continued quietly. "Can you imagine… what it must be like for Ohtori and Jirou? For the person you love the most in the world to face death?"

"They won't die," said Wakashi firmly. "I know they won't."

"You can't say that for sure, Wakashi," said Haginosuke quietly, taking Wakashi's hand in his comfortingly. Wakashi shook his head. "Shishido and Atobe are the most stubborn people in the world. They're not going to let this kill them."

"Thanks, Hiyoshi!" called Shishido from a little ways away.

Wakashi looked away. "Whatever."

Haginosuke laughed and pinched Wakashi's cheek. "So cute when you're embarrassed."

"…"

Wakashi generally would start to glare at Haginosuke for a stunt like this, because boyfriend or not, nobody called Hiyoshi Wakashi… _cute_. But Shishido and Choutarou laughed, which neither of them had seemed to do very much lately, so Wakashi sucked it up and instead made a childish face back at Haginosuke.

* * *

Jirou and Atobe had apparently decided that a make out session was the only way to say goodbye properly. They'd been going at it for at least ten minutes when Oshitari noticed the uncomfortable stares they were receiving from the humans at the train station. Apparently, humans didn't regard homosexuality to be the norm up here on the surface.

"Alright, break it up, you two," said Oshitari, pulling the two apart by their shoulders. "We don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves, you know."

"Don't pretend that you'd be doing the same if it were you or Gakuto leaving," said Jirou. "I think we're entitled to a kiss or two in public. Keigo's going to risk his life in Hokkaido– _and_ he's going to save your cousin, too!"

Oshitari held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, you got me, Jirou," he said. "But can't you guys be like the Silver and Golden Pairs over there and just settle for a hug?"

Atobe scoffed haughtily. "What do you take us for? Mere peasants? They can be as discreet as they want, but Ore-sama is not going to bother hiding his sexuality in a world full of people who would hate Ore-sama anyway."

"…Point taken," said Oshitari grudgingly.

"Besides," said Jirou, grinning deviously, "we're not called the Adorable Pair because we hug like brothers."

"Hugging to you is a cover for groping," snorted Gakuto, slipping into the conversation easily.

"That's not very fair," said Oshitari thoughtfully. "Brothers can grope, too, you know, if they wanted to."

Atobe stared at him.

"You don't have a brother, do you, Oshitari?" asked Jirou, who couldn't imagine groping his older brother in any way. It would be really gross.

"Don't mind him," said Gakuto, sighing. "He has a thing for twincest, like Niou and I found out one day…" he trailed off into a shudder.

"Don't worry, Yagyuu was there, too," said Oshitari, as if Atobe and Jirou were worried. "There was no cheating going on behind Yagyuu's back."

Deciding not to think of Oshitari, Gakuto, Yagyuu and Niou in some sort of sick foursome, Atobe instead pressed a smaller, chaste kiss to Jirou's lips and hugged him tightly.

"I love you, Keigo," whispered Jirou.

"I love you too, Jirou," said Atobe quietly.

* * *

Yukimura had had Akaya attached to him for some time now. "But you could die, Mura-buchou!" wailed Akaya miserably. "I don't want you to die!"

"Trust me, none of us wants Yukimura to die," said Niou boredly, examining his fingernails. Today his finger and toenails were bright green, to match the green highlights he'd put into his disguise's black hair. He'd decided to pose as a glam rock sort of guy, borrowing his style of dress from that American artist, Adam Lambert.

Jackal calmly removed Akaya from Yukimura's waist and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes you have to sacrifice one thing to save another," he said wisely. "Risking Yukimura's life will save all those Strangers up in Hokkaido."

"Yukimura can look after himself, anyway," said Marui unworriedly, blowing and popping a bubblegum bubble as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

"Yes, Yukimura is quite competent, so you needn't worry, Kirihara-kun," said Yagyuu kindly.

"Yukimura will come back in one piece," said Yanagi. "I can predict that much. I've seen it."

Akaya's loud wailing died down at this sentence and he sniffled. "Y-You've seen it?" he repeated. "A-And… you're never wrong… right, Yanagi-sempai?"

Yanagi nodded. Akaya cheered considerably.

"Come on," said Marui, taking Akaya's hand. "Let's go get some ice cream from the shop over there!" He caught Yukimura's eye and winked, then left, Akaya, Jackal, Niou and Yagyuu in tow.

"Did you really see it?" asked Sanada quietly once they were gone.

"Parts," said Yanagi. "Yukimura returns in one piece, but I do not know if he is alive or dead."

Sanada's expression turned even more troubled.

Yukimura glanced at Yanagi significantly. Yanagi nodded. "I'm going to get an ice cream, too," he said casually.

Yukimura and Sanada watched him go in companionable silence.

Yanagi had long since disappeared into the shop when Sanada finally said softly, "Seiichi, I love you. Please… stay safe."

Yukimura wasn't quite as shy as Sanada and tugged Sanada down for a kiss. "I love you too, Gen," he said quietly after they broke apart. "I'll be fine, don't worry."

Sanada nodded with slight difficulty. "I believe you."

* * *

"I'm really excited, Jin-sempai, desu!" said Taichi, practically jumping up and down in his excitement. His extra-hyper rambling today was probably partly nerves and part genuine excitement, but Jin wasn't really concerned about it. He'd long developed the ability to tune the smaller boy's voice out and only absorb the important bits, which were few and far in between.

"Good luck to you both!" chirped Sengoku, clapping them both on the back.

"Thanks, desu!" said Taichi cheerfully.

Jin remained mute and stared at the spot where the train would be arriving.

Sengoku seemed to pick up on Taichi's nerves and said to him, "Look, Rikkai's going into an ice cream shop! Why don't you go in and get yourself a little treat, on me?" Sengoku handed the kid two 500 yen coins and gently nudged him in the direction of the ice cream shop.

Taichi opened his mouth to protest, but Sengoku cut him off. "That's an order from your sempai," he added, winking. Jin felt the irrational urge to rip Sengoku's throat out, but refrained from doing so; it would only made Taichi mad at him, and then they wouldn't get to have sex in the train.

…Well, they weren't going to have sex in the train, or at least weren't planning to, but Jin much preferred having something to look forward to instead of dreading being given the silent treatment for the sixteen hour long train ride.

"Don't die out there, Akutsu," said Sengoku helpfully. "Dan will be inconsolable."

"That's fucking great advice," said Jin sarcastically, glaring. "You should write a book."

"When you guys end up fucking on the train, try not to get stains on anything. It takes forever to wash out," Sengoku continued, ignoring Jin's retort. "And take these for God's sake," he added, pressing a small bottle of lube and a roll of condoms on Jin's chest. "It's not like it is with a girl, you need to prepare the little guy," Sengoku admonished, sounding almost like Jin's mother.

"I know what I'm doing," growled Jin, slightly embarrassed. "Shut up."

Sengoku gave him a knowing look, saying, "Dan's going to show up soon," and Jin grudgingly pocketed the lube and condoms. Sengoku beamed triumphantly. "Just remember that being fucked on the floor of a train is pretty gross and the carpet will chafe after a while."

"He's not a girl, he can take some degree of roughness," said Jin irritably. "And stop talking like you've fucking experienced this."

"Oh, I have," said Sengoku cheerfully. "I'm bi, you see."

"And you couldn't take being fucked on some goddamned carpet?" Jin heard himself say automatically.

"We went at it for a good six hours, of course I couldn't take it," said Sengoku conversationally.

"Stop fucking with me," said Jin, disbelieving. "He wanted to fuck over and over in the same fucking position?"

"Yes," said Sengoku, making a face as if reliving the experience. "By the third hour–"

"I'm back, Jin-sempai, Sengoku-sempai!" said Taichi cheerfully, licking at a vanilla ice cream cone. "By the third hour of what, Sengoku-sempai?"

"By the third hour of playing video games, my fingers started to cramp uncomfortably," said Sengoku smoothly, putting an arm around Dan's shoulders. "Take that as a lesson, Dan. Never play games for six solid hours, no matter how fun they are." Sengoku winked at Jin over Dan's head.

"I won't, desu!"

That bugger Sengoku, thought Jin. Wimp, too. Who let a dude fuck him in the same goddamned position for six hours anyway?

* * *

Ishida and Sakurai were feeling slightly awkward. All around them, their comrades were bidding very romantic and teary goodbyes. Even Echizen had been pulled into a tight embrace by his little girlfriend though his teammates Momoshiro and Fuji made sure he got teased for that after she'd let go and dashed off in embarrassment.

All Ishida and Sakurai had were Tachibana, Shinji and Akira.

"Do us proud out there, boys," said Tachibana, clapping them both on the shoulder with an encouraging smile.

Akira offered them a grin. "Yeah, show them what Fudomine can do!" he said.

"I don't understand why Tetsu and Masaya get to go when Akira and I signed up too," mumbled Shinji. "Masaya I can understand, but frankly, I think Akira or me would be much more useful than Tetsu in this mission. Why is Kanto on this mission anyway? Can't we ask our contacts in a region closer to Hokkaido to do this instead of making our people travel for sixteen hours up to Hokkaido? I mean it really doesn't make sense, does it? Sacrificing precious time to…"

"**Oh** my **God**!" exclaimed Akira, his notoriously short fuse going off. Sakurai blamed that on his red hair, and if Ishida hadn't been pouting about Shinji's comment, he'd have agreed. "Will you _shut up_, Shinji?"

"Now, now, Akira," said Tachibana, attempting to mediate as always. "As for your question, Shinji, both our region and the Tohoku region are going to be sending manpower out to aid Hokkaido. Our region is doing so because we house the strongest Strangers in the country. Tohoku is doing so because they are the closest to Hokkaido."

"We house the strongest Strangers in the country?" repeated Sakurai in awe, absently patting Ishida on the back in an attempt to rouse him from his sulking.

"Yes," said Tachibana. "Kanto is the most populated region in Japan, and so there are bound to be more Strangers, yes? Besides that, families in rural areas have less chance of conceiving a child without love, unlike hookers in the red light district here in Tokyo. We also have the highest percentage of abandoned Strangers, and when you learn to survive out on the streets, it toughens you up and makes you actually use your full potential. We actually have to go out and save other Strangers regularly, unlike in more rural areas."

"Ah, I see," said Sakurai, rubbing his chin.

"…still think that Akira or me should go in place of Tetsu," mumbled Shinji, who had apparently started up his mumbling sometime during Tachibana's speech. "And why would they attack the second largest region first? Wouldn't it be easier to conquer a smaller region first? Americans can't be that stupid, can they? Though I wouldn't know much about it, I've never seen a real American anywhere other than on TV in my life. I guess I shouldn't say so much about people that I don't know… Ah, Akira's throttling me again. I don't know why he keeps doing that, it's so annoying. His face is turning really red, it's almost the same color as his hair. I think he's mad at me. Well, that's pretty normal, I suppose, so I shouldn't be worried…"

"SHINJI!" Akira practically screamed, ready to rip his hair out. "Just– shut _up_ for five minutes, will you?"

Honestly, you'd think after such a long time of living together, Akira would just give up and accept Shinji's mumbling habit. Everyone else in the House had. And why couldn't Akira just ignore him? They were best friends. How could they have become best friends if he couldn't even look past Shinji's character? I mean, seriously…

Eep. Sakurai was getting Shinji's disease.

"Hokkaido is the least populated," said Tachibana after a while of backtracking through Shinji's rant. "It may be the second largest state, but its population is the least. It would be the easiest to attack them because they would offer the least resistance."

Shinji opened his mouth to continue ranting. Akira, fuming, slapped a hand over his best friend's mouth. Shinji was unfazed, and a moment later, Akira withdrew his hand quickly, shrieking in horror. "He licked me! The bastard licked me!"

"It shouldn't come as such a surprise, really, considering this happens nearly every other week when Akira tries this trick after forgetting that he's already tried it," mumbled Shinji. "And–"

"That's it!" cried Akira, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration. "I give up!" He let out a frustrated yell and stormed off to the bathrooms.

"Ah, where's Akira going?" asked Shinji, for once voicing the question to his friends.

"He's angry with you," said Ishida, apparently not completely over Shinji's comment according to the slight pout on his face.

"He's probably going to the bathroom," said Tachibana. "I should go with him and calm him down. You know how he gets when he's angry. He might kill someone."

Tachibana took off in the same direction, careful to walk casually so as to not draw attention.

"Oh, now Tachibana-san's gone too. It's almost time for Tetsu and Masaya to go, I hope they come back soon. I think Tetsu and Masaya will be alright on the mission. They're good enough at fighting as a team and will be with a bunch of other really great fighters like Yukimura and Echizen and Akutsu. They're not stupid enough to get themselves killed, I think, though they'll definitely get injured at some point because they're not that good–"

"OI!" cried Ishida and Sakurai in unison. "That's not a nice thing to say to two of your closest friends who are about to risk their lives on a mission for the greater good!"

Shinji blinked. "I didn't say anything," he said innocently.

Ishida and Sakurai exchanged glances and sweatdropped. "T-This guy," began Ishida, eye twitching, "didn't realize that he was thinking out loud the whole time?"

* * *

Akazawa looked around at the hearty goodbyes everyone was getting and sighed. Why did his team have to be such cowards? Only Mizuki and Yuuta had showed up, and while that was better than nothing, Yuuta kept shying away in the hopes that his brother wouldn't notice his presence.

"He's not going to recognize you in that ridiculous disguise you insisted on putting on," said Mizuki, sounding amused as he twirled a curl round his finger. "Even I have trouble recognizing you in that disguise."

"Don't underestimate my brother," said Yuuta darkly. "His Spidey sense tingles when I'm within a three mile radius."

Akazawa and Mizuki laughed, evidently believing it to be a joke or exaggeration.

"I'm serious!" hissed Yuuta, wrapping his dark coat around his body tighter. "He's going to show up any moment!"

"Relax, Yuuta-kun," said Akazawa. "Your brother isn't that bad, is he?"

"He's embarrassing!" whined Yuuta. "He keeps treating me like I'm a child!"

"Well, you _are_ his little brother," Mizuki pointed out. "He's been protecting you since before you can remember. Him and your sister."

"Well, yeah, and I'm thankful for that and all, but–" Yuuta sighed. "But I stopped needing his protection a long time ago, and he doesn't seem to understand that."

There was a tense silence as Mizuki and Akazawa exchanged awkward glances. Both were single children and were unsure of how to deal with this sort of problem.

"W-Well, anyway," said Mizuki after a moment. "We're not here to counsel Yuuta's Cain complex."

"What complex?" asked Yuuta, the biblical reference flying right over his head.

Mizuki ignored him. "May the gods be with you, Akazawa-buchou, and guide you safely back home to us."

Akazawa nodded. "Thank you, Mizuki."

"See you, Akazawa, and don't die," said Yuuta bluntly, trying to keep his voice down in case his brother somehow detected his presence.

"Yuuta!" called a vaguely feminine voice. Akazawa and Mizuki turned to see Fuji Syuusuke running towards them with a bigger than usual grin on his face. Yuuta cringed. "Shit," he swore in a hiss. "I told you, he's got a built-in radar for me or something!"

"Hello, Fuji-kun," said Akazawa, ignoring Yuuta. "Nice to see you again. How's Tezuka?"

"Fine, fine, Akazawa-kun. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but if I could have a word with my brother?" asked Fuji politely.

Akazawa stepped aside. "Of course."

"Ah, Fuji-kun," said Mizuki, arrogance turned on as he twirled a curl around his finger. "What a pleasant surprise."

Fuji smiled sympathetically, a smile that a toddler could see through. "I'm sorry," he said, mocking politeness. "I don't recall ever meeting you before. Are you acquainted with my brother, Yuuta?"

Mizuki's smile dropped and he said coldly, "My name is Mizuki Hajime, and you know damn well who I am."

Fuji opened his startlingly blue eyes. "It's nice to meet you, Mituli-kun," he said icily, not convincing anyone, "but I'm not sure how I feel about you using such language in front of my young and impressionable little brother."

"Aniki!" protested Yuuta, unable to keep silent. "I'm sixteen!"

"Hello, Yuuta," said Fuji pleasantly, ignoring Yuuta's statement completely. "I like your wig, though I must say that this violent shade of pink is most unbecoming on you."

Akazawa sighed and steeled himself for a long and awkward conversation.

* * *

Thank you for all your support! It's the last leg of the race; I've got 1356 words to go after this chapter and two days to write (including today) so I'm pretty confident about reaching the goal this year. This story is far from over, though; still got lots more planned for this. Review me and make me want to finish it! (I never finish anyth


	20. Chapter 20

Seiichi was really pissed off. He'd been forced to room with Akazawa and the dark-skinned teen snored like jackhammer. Seiichi had put up with this unbearable snoring for an hour and a half, and his patience had fizzled out.

Seiichi mentally flicked through the powers he had in store. Just to spite Akazawa and keep the guy awake for an hour and a half and see how he felt about it.

Seiichi let his consciousness and his power seep across the room into Akazawa's mind. From there, he summoned up his magic and electricity powers and set a trigger in Akazawa's brain to send a small amount of electricity jolting into Akazawa's eyeballs if he closed his eyes for three seconds. The spell would last exactly an hour and a half, and if it didn't wear off for a while longer, well, Akazawa had gotten quite a bit of sleep already anyway.

Seiichi allowed himself an evil grin because no one was watching and slipped back into his own body. He turned over and faced the wall of the train and silently counted down, _3, 2, 1_…

There was a faint buzzing noise and Akazawa yelped. Seiichi, abusing the 360 degree vision he'd absorbed from a particularly startling fellow in the circus and the x-ray vision he'd picked up from Hyoutei's Mukahi, watched Akazawa's eyes fly open and sit up, looking around in bewilderment.

"Yukimura," he called softly. "Did you do that? Are you awake?"

Seiichi groaned sleepily and pulled the covers up higher, inwardly snickering gleefully.

There was a pause as Akazawa frowned and blinked, then decided it was his imagination and settled down to go back to sleep. Seiichi shut off his super vision and grinned to himself as Akazawa jolted awake once more. Now _this_ he could get used to.

* * *

They were about ten hours into the trip when Seiichi heard Oshitari's voice in his head.

_Yukimura! Yukimura, wake up!_

Seiichi was instantly alert. Some sort of emergency must have happened, because there was no way Oshitari was going to waste his energy like this by communicating telepathically with Seiichi almost halfway across the country.

_What's wrong, Oshitari?_

_Yukimura, they're attacking Tokyo! So far they're only attacking on the surface, but with this kind of commotion, the chances of getting hit by one of those death ray guns up there is higher. The citizens are hoping that we'll be safe and that they won't find us in the tunnels. Ryuuzaki-sensei is trying to close up the entrances as well as she can without cutting off air supply entirely, but there's no guarantee they won't find us._

Seiichi felt his jaw drop as his brain processed the words. _What? But Frank–_

_It seems that they found out that we had been tailing Frank and fed him misinformation to throw us off. I-_

The sounds of a great commotion filtered in through Oshitari's side of the connection. Seiichi could feel his fear and panic.

_Calm down, Oshitari! Do you need us to come back? Are they sending any troops at all to Hokkaido?_

_I- I think so. I can't be sure; these Americans seem to have especially high resistance towards my mind penetration._

Seiichi pursed his lips in thought. The most logical answer would be to send some back to help and send the rest to Hokkaido, but they were a _team_, and they hadn't been assigned a leader, so Seiichi was not authorized to make this sort of decision for them. He would have to discuss it with them and come to a conclusion.

_I will inform the team. Once we come to a decision, I will contact you once again._

_A-Alright. Hurry._

Seiichi cut off the connection, then reached out to every Stranger on the train.

_Wake up!_ he sent sharply. _Tokyo is being attacked! The American informant was given wrong information to mislead our men. Everybody meet up in my compartment!_

There were immediate sounds of clambering, and Akazawa sat up grumpily. "I'd just gotten to sleep, too," he grumbled, but sobered when Seiichi gave him a 'not the time for this' look.

"Yukimura! What's going on? What's the plan?" asked Ishida in a frantic whisper, sliding open the compartment door and hurrying in, Sakurai in tow. _Ah,_ said the part of Seiichi's brain that was distant and off-topic. _So he's bald under that headscarf. I'd always wondered._

Atobe and Shishido suddenly appeared in a shimmer of sparkles, Oishi and Echizen slipped into the room quietly but seriously and Akutsu and Dan arrived last, looking suspiciously rumpled, but Seiichi decided to deal with that later.

"Like I said, Tokyo is being attacked by the Americans as we speak. They haven't found the tunnels yet, but it's only a matter of time before they do. It's too dangerous to evacuate the tunnels because of the Americans shooting their weapons on the surface," said Seiichi seriously as he looked around at them.

"Hokkaido is also to be attacked, or may actually already be under attack. We have no way of finding out what is going on up there. Sakurai, you're the best strategist in Kanto. What do you suggest we do?"

Sakurai closed his eyes and pressed his lips together in thought for a long moment.

"What I would suggest," he said slowly, "is to split up. Some of us go to Hokkaido; the others go back to Tokyo. Obviously Yukimura and Shishido need to be on opposing sides, because only they two have the power to teleport. Shishido should lead the Hokkaido group because it's closer, but he also has to take Dan because the power required to teleport to an unknown location is a lot, and Dan can sap power from everyone and use it in one go.

"Akutsu, Akazawa, Atobe and I will go with Yukimura back to Tokyo and deal with things there. Ishida, Echizen, Oishi, you three go with Shishido and Dan to Hokkaido. Once there, you have to save every Stranger you can and put them with the Tohoku region Strangers. Preferably, do this stealthily and, failing that, incapacitate those who try to follow you without killing them. Stay long enough to make sure that the Strangers are safe, then come back to Tokyo if you have enough power to help. If not, don't bother, you'll only get it our way."

This was all said very quickly and quietly. Sakurai nodded. "Okay. Yukimura, please inform the Tohoku Strangers of the attack."

"Already done," said Yukimura. "They have confirmed that there was an attack on Hokkaido, and have sent one of their guys to do a search of the area."

"And Tokyo?"

Yukimura nodded. "I transmitted all that I heard you say to Oshitari."

Sakurai nodded. "Alright. Good luck, gentlemen," he added, bowing low. "Best we be off, then."

* * *

Taichi screwed his eyes shut in concentration. He'd never had to take in so much power before, but he was determined to succeed. He had to. Everyone was counting on him.

Jin and the others had already left. Yukimura was a much stronger Stranger than Taichi was, and he was so experienced. He probably did this kind of thing all the time–

Focus. Taichi could do that too. Taichi was a sponge just like Yukimura. If Yukimura could do it, then Taichi could do it, too! But… but what if–

"Relax," advised Oishi kindly, sensing Taichi's distress. "This is your natural power. Just relax and let your instincts take over."

So Taichi did, and, true enough, he could feel the power seeping into his body. He took Shishido's teleportation ability and made sure to filter out all the abilities of the others and absorb only the energy from the others.

"Ready?" asked Taichi softly, eyes closed as he pictured the hill overlooking Sapporo, where they had agreed to meet up with the Tohoku Strangers.

"Yes," Oishi, Echizen, Ishida and Shishido replied in unison.

Taichi willed with every fiber of his being that they were in that place, that hill overlooking Sapporo, and then they vanished in a burst of sparkles.

* * *

Dan, Echizen, Oishi, Ishida and Shishido emerged several feet above the hill and fell to the ground with a loud thump.

"Shit," groaned Shishido. "I told you, Dan, you've got to aim!"

"S-Sorry, desu," said Dan sheepishly, scratching his cheek.

"You four are the Kanto boys?" asked a curt, female voice. The four boys turned to look at her in unison. She was tall with long, dark hair that had been put into a hasty ponytail.

"Yes," said Oishi, taking control of the situation by rising to his feet and half bowing to her. "My name is Oishi Syuuichirou, I'm a healer. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

The girl bowed back and said, "Yoroshiku. My name is Ayumi. I'm a telekinetic and a telepath. I've sent one of my girls down to scout around for Strangers."

"There aren't any," said Echizen bluntly. Ayumi turned to him. "You sense powers?" she asked. "Useful. I've sent my only two sensers down to other cities to check for hidden Strangers. No luck so far."

"Have the Americans gotten all of them?" asked Shishido.

Ayumi nodded gravely. "By the time we got here ten minutes ago, every city in Hokkaido had been overtaken by the Americans. Some of the humans are still alive, but we haven't found a single Stranger yet."

Suddenly, a boy piggybacking a girl shimmered into visibility next to Ayumi. "Ayumi, I haven't seen a single Stranger in there," said the boy, dropping the girl.

"If they're hiding, they're doing a damn good job of it," added the girl, landing on her feet neatly.

"This is Takuya and Akiko. They're twins," said Ayumi to the Kanto boys. "No time for pleasantries now," she added sternly as Akiko opened her mouth to say something. "We have to move north and check for Strangers."

"Do you have someone who can channel energy?" asked Echizen suddenly.

Ayumi frowned. "Well, yes, but what does that have to do with–"

"I need a lot of power to mentally scan Hokkaido, but it will save time. We want to go back to Tokyo as quickly as possible," said Echizen impatiently. "Hurry up."

Ayumi's lips pressed together. "Your rudeness isn't desirable, but I'll forgive you because your region is in danger."

She fell silent for a moment, then said, "She's on her way."

Echizen crossed his arms. There was an awkward silence.

"…So, I suppose we could do introductions now?" suggested Oishi.

* * *

Ryoma closed his eyes and forced himself to send power all over Hokkaido. It took a while – of course it did, Hokkaido was _huge, _but it was this or do it physically, and that would take too damn long. Tokyo could be rubble by then.

But this was truly strange. There was no sign of any sort of a Stranger's aura at all, not even the kind that wasn't contained, that leaked out of corpses. Ryoma supposed that it was because the weapons disintegrated people upon contact, so the power must have gone with them.

Ryoma frowned. That wasn't right. Even though he couldn't pick up a single bit of Stranger aura, there was a lot of leftover human aura. Ryoma scanned the entirety of Hokkaido twice to confirm this, but the second sweep didn't reveal anything new.

This… wasn't possible. If even the humans were leaving traces everywhere, the Strangers should have been leaving bright beacons of power everywhere. The only logical explanation for all this was that…

"…there have never been any Strangers in Hokkaido."

* * *

I'm so sorry for how awkward the writing gets. I was trying to finish my 50,000 words as soon as possible (which I have done!) and the result is this awkward chapter. But, anyway, you have my dad to thank for this plot twist that I didn't see coming. He suggested something like this at dinner yesterday and I was like OMG, I should totally do that! Yeah. Don't worry, more to come soon. It should get pretty serious from here but you guys know me and my writing style (or you should after reading so many words!) and you know I can't keep the seriousness serious for very long.

Review! (so I feel like finishing it because NaNo is over and I don't have a goal anymore)

Love,

Stars of Gold


	21. Chapter 21

"What's the situation?" asked Sakurai immediately as his group arrived in the Courtyard.

Yukimura let out a small gasp and crumpled to the floor, pressing a hand to his forehead as he did so. "I didn't think it would take so much power," he murmured, frowning and shaking his head.

Sanada ran up to them, shouting, "SEIICHIIIIIIIIIII!"

Atobe put a hand on his hip, obviously annoyed. "Do you want them to find us?" he snapped ill-temperedly.

"They're making enough noise up there that this screaming won't tip them off to our location," said Saeki, walking up to them at a more sedated pace behind Sanada.

"You didn't catch him!" Sanada bellowed, pointing accusingly at Akazawa, who had been standing closest to Yukimura. "TARUNDORU!" he yelled, bitch-slapping Akazawa on the left cheek.

The slap was electrically charged and almost inhumanly fast. Akazawa actually fell to the ground with a hand over his stinging cheek, swearing like a sailor.

Unfortunately, he was completely ignored.

"We've been tracking their progress through Oshitari and Mukahi. So far so good; it doesn't seem like they're going to go looking for our tunnels. Marui and Ryuuzaki have gone over to the civilian tunnels and are in the process of sealing them shut. Ours have been left undisguised for the moment because if they find us, we can fight them off our property," said Saeki.

"Mm, good plan," said Sakurai, biting his lip nervously. "Will it come to that, you think?"

"It might," said Saeki seriously. "For now, be on guard and go say your last words to everyone. Some of us could die today."

The group dispersed then, because Saeki's words were true, and nobody wanted to die with any regrets.

* * *

It was a solid hour of nerve-wracking close calls. Strangers were stationed near every entrance to the network of tunnels. Jirou had set a weak illusion over every entrance in addition to the current camouflage the entrances bore with Yukimura's help, and hopefully if an American accidentally discovered one, they'd leave it alone because they would be too busy terrorizing the humans up top, trying to take over Tokyo.

But, obviously, once they'd achieved that, they'd look in every little crevice and then the Strangers would be forced to defend Tokyo.

"Aniki," said Yuuta quietly. Syuusuke turned to him, his face gentle and smiling. "Yuuta," he said cheerily. "Nee-san, Yuuta's here."

Yuuta waved weakly at his sister. "Hi, nee-san."

Yumiko glanced between him and Syuusuke, then smiled. "I'm going to go talk to Tezuka-kun over there," she said, winking at Yuuta.

"Don't traumatize him, nee-san," called Syuusuke mildly. Yumiko waved a dismissive hand back at him. "As if I could do anything to him that you couldn't!" she retorted, laughing. She turned away and took a slightly startled Tezuka's arm.

"Aniki," said Yuuta. "I… I–"

"Ne, Yuuta," said Syuusuke, eyes open and completely vulnerable for once. His smile was gentle and genuine. "Did you know? This is how it felt when… when _they_ were on our tails. Do you remember…? Ah, of course you don't, you were only six then. But… can you feel it? The feeling of panic and fear. I remember so clearly, you were so scared then. 'What's going to happen to us, nii-chan?' you asked me, and I… I couldn't answer you. I didn't know the answer, and I didn't want to lie to you. Nee-san picked you up and cuddled you and told you that everything was going to be alright, and that we were being chased by bad men, but we would make it through it."

To Yuuta's horror, Syuusuke actually started _crying_. "I think… that must be why you prefer nee-san over me. I… I'm so sorry, Yuuta. I… I failed as a big brother. Please… forgive me."

Syuusuke was actually _bowing_ to Yuuta now, tears still falling freely and hitting the ground with soft '_plip, plip, plip'_s.

"Baka," said Yuuta fiercely, grabbing his brother and pulling him up by the shoulders. "What the hell is wrong with you? I… I'm the one who should be apologizing here!"

Yuuta, too, was crying now, and Syuusuke seemed shocked to see the tears on his brother's face. "For years, Aniki, for years you've been so much better than me at– at everything. And I– I hated you for it. I hated the way you were so perfect, so naturally talented while I had to work so hard to do anything! But- but, Aniki, you made it so- so _hard_ for me to hate you. Every time I tried to push you, to make you hate me just as much as I hated you– you just smiled sadly and let me go. "

"But Yuuta," said Syuusuke, eyes wide. "Ne, Yuuta, I thought that was what you wanted. I didn't want to get angry at you and yell; I thought that would make you hate me more."

Yuuta shook his head. "Maybe… maybe it would have been better if you'd gotten angry. If we'd had a great shouting match, I would have gotten all my feelings out in the open and– and maybe we'd have had this talk much sooner."

There was a silence, only punctuated by Yuuta sniffing occasionally. Syuusuke, who was also still crying, didn't seem to feel the need to sniff, something, Yuuta decided, that made his brother seem all the more perfect.

Then Syuusuke pulled Yuuta into a tight hug. "I love you, Yuuta," he whispered against his brother's cheek. "I love you so much. I'm so sorry, I didn't realize…"

Yuuta hugged Syuusuke back just as hard. "It's fine, Aniki, I… I love you too."

Yuuta could feel the weight of so many years' resentment lifting off of his shoulders, and he cried.

"Oh, this is so sweet," cooed Yumiko's familiar voice. "My brothers are so cute~" she added, wrapping her arms around them both.

Syuusuke chuckled, the sound somewhat distorted by his crying. "I love you both, nee-san, Yuuta," he said, winding his right arm around Yumiko's waist.

"We love you too, Syuusuke," said Yumiko tenderly as Yuuta followed his brother's lead, putting his left arm around Yumiko. "We love you too."

"Aww~!" cooed the crowd behind them, despite the fact that the majority of them were well-muscled males.

* * *

It was inevitable, really, everyone knew that. The only question was _when_ it would happen…

And that _when_ was now.

"They're coming," Gakuto announced for Oshitari, with Taki's help, to broadcast to every Stranger in the tunnels.

Takeshi was scared. There was no doubt about that. His own fear had been overshadowed by the fear of so many more, and it was freaking Takeshi out.

"Calm down," said Kaidoh lowly, his arms crossed against his chest. Takeshi opened his mouth to snap a reply, but thought better of it. After all, they could possibly be about to die, and he didn't want to spend his last moments fighting with Kaidoh.

"…Momoshiro," said Kaidoh after a moment. "You… You're my rival. And… my best friend."

Takeshi's jaw fell slightly slack, but he could feel the sincerity behind Kaidoh's words. "Yeah," he heard himself say hoarsely. "And you're mine."

Kaidoh didn't say anything, but he didn't have to. The swell of embarrassment and happiness had been too obvious for Takeshi not to notice, especially with all the fear as a backdrop.

Takeshi felt some of the fear alleviate, and he grinned as he nudged Kaidoh in the ribs. "Don't let Inui hear you saying that, though. He might get jealous."

Oho, so that's what set him off! Kaidoh's face burned a bright red and the embarrassment he radiated was almost enough to send Takeshi stumbling in surprise. "T-That's different," he grumbled. "S-Shut up!"

Takeshi laughed, and found that it wasn't completely humorless.

And then the American troops burst into the tunnels, coming to a stop right in front of Jirou's illusion of a dark cave.

"If anybody's in here, come out with your hands up!" one of them shouted in English. The tunnel, to them, was dark and rather creepy. They couldn't see the Strangers lurking behind it, ready to attack.

And then a younger, higher voice said, "Sir, it's an illusion, sir! Just go straight through." It was a shock to find that someone _knew_ it was an illusion, _knew_ that the scene before them was a work of a Stranger

They'd picked the wrong tunnel. Rikkai House, male and female (with the exception of Marui), tensed and nodded to each other. The nod, it meant, "We are Rikkai, we will not lose," it meant, "It's been an honor," it meant, "You're all my family."

Sanada and Yukimura, along with the Leader of the female Rikkai House, stood right in the front. Sanada tightened his grip on his katana and a bright yellow orb formed around the female Leader's hands.

Then the Americans barged into sight through Jirou's illusion, and all three of them yelled together, "CHARGE!"

Those American bastards didn't see it coming at all.

* * *

http:/s1195. photobucket. com/albums/aa391/stars_of_gold/?action=view¤t;=wordcloud. jpg

^ that's my Strangers word cloud and it's pretty cool (remove spaces). The bigger the word, the more times it's been used. Apparently I use Gakuto's name a lot -.-'

Well, anyway. This is a short update because I forgot to post the link to that word cloud last chapter and because this seemed like a nice place to stop. Now things are serious as a terminal illness. Yes. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I should be killing some people off soon. Perhaps not now, but, you know, later. And there's a totally awesome twist that I hope no one realized was coming because then it would be sad :(

Please tell me: **Yuuta/Mizuki, Mizuki/Yuuta, Saeki/Yuuta**? Yuuta/Saeki would be weird. Also, **how popular are Ishida, Sakurai and Ishida/Sakurai?** You know what, just tell me which characters you like and dislike. Also, who I shouldn't kill off because of your endless love for them.

I have to say that I hate Echizen Ryoma. If you haven't noticed, a lot of crap has happened to the poor bastard, on and off screen, because the past I've imagined for him is pretty tragic. Probably won't kill him off, though. He's pretty hardy and _has never lost a bloody (official) match in the entire Prince of Tennis series._

Anyway. **Review**.

Love,

Stars of Gold


	22. Interlude: The Fuji Family

"Nii-chan, I'm hungry," said Yuuta with his huge gray eyes as he tugs on Syuusuke's sleeve. Syuusuke forced himself to smile at Yuuta, Syuusuke's gray eyes too weary, too jaded for one so young.

"Here, Yuuta," said Syuusuke, tearing off half of a slightly stale loaf of bread. "Eat this. It's not much, but it's all we have."

"Thanks, nii-chan," said Yuuta cheerily, easily appeased. Syuusuke's smile turns into one of longing. What he would give to be so innocent and clueless. It was one of the times Syuusuke truly wished he wasn't quite as smart as he was. A prodigy, they called him, but ignorance, in this case, was truly bliss, thought Syuusuke as he watched Yuuta munch on the hunk of bread, never complaining.

Yuuta didn't know. He didn't know what was really going on here.

"Nii-chan," said Yuuta suddenly. "Where's nee-chan?"

Syuusuke tensed. "Nee-chan," he began, "can't be here with us, Yuuta. She… she loves us very much, Yuuta, and she wants to be here, but she can't."

"Why not?" asked Yuuta innocently, blinking.

"Our… _parents_ don't want her to," said Syuusuke, trying not to spit the word out like it was poison. "They think… they think she's sick, and they don't want us to catch it either."

"Oh," said Yuuta, accepting this explanation easily. Their parents' word was law to him, as it was to any small child, and Syuusuke wished that he was just as much of a child as Yuuta, that he was a true and proper seven year old. Normal seven year olds would have accepted all this as normal, as a way of their parents showing them love, but Syuusuke wasn't normal and saw through it eventually.

Parents. Syuusuke almost snorted. Parents. They were monsters. They'd locked all three of the Fuji siblings up in a room, this tiny white room that they insisted was to keep the children safe from the world.

They meant to keep themselves safe from the children.

The moment they found out that Yumiko was exhibiting signs of Stranger powers, they threw her in that room and locked it up tight. They wanted to report it to the police, but were afraid of being arrested for harboring a Stranger. So Fuji Kazuki and Yoshiko kept it quiet, kept her alive.

When Syuusuke was born and showed massive intellect, they threw him in with her. They were afraid, afraid that Syuusuke, too, would be a Stranger. They were afraid of his intelligence, and Syuusuke learned that quickly despite his parents' attempts at lying to him, telling him that he was in the room for his own safety. Syuusuke was five at the time and he accepted it, though part of him didn't believe his parents. Not really.

Months passed, and Syuusuke's belief in their claims dwindled slowly and steadily. Yumiko never lied to him, never tried to make him feel better with sweet, meaningless words. She told him the truth, no matter what he asked, though he could sense that she was censoring herself. Syuusuke let her. She was scared, and she was trying to protect her little brother from the harsh reality. The six year old in Syuusuke still believed that the reality was not nearly as harsh as Yumiko made it seem, that his parents really did love them and was doing all this for their sake, but Syuusuke was smart, and he knew that probably wasn't the case.

Syuusuke's eyes unwittingly drifted over to the scar on Yuuta's right temple and his temper flared.

The day Kazuki struck Yuuta was the day Syuusuke's belief in their love went right out of the window. Yumiko and Syuusuke pounded on the glass separating them as hard as they could, but they couldn't break it. It was bulletproof, after all. Yoshiko bandaged Yuuta's head lightly, quickly, as if she were afraid her son, her own _flesh_ _and_ _blood_, would attack her. Then she threw him in with Yumiko and Syuusuke, both of whom mothered him and fussed over his wound.

It was a year later that Yoshiko read an article in the papers about the Stranger virus being capable of spreading, and it was then that she put Yumiko into a different cell. Neither Syuusuke nor Yuuta had displayed any sign of Stranger power, and they wanted to keep the virus as contained as possible. Syuusuke hated them even more for taking his sister away from him and Yuuta.

Syuusuke was jolted out of his thoughts as a wave of dizziness swept over him. "Oh," he said softly without realizing as he put a hand to his head

Yuuta had good instincts and immediately went to his brother's side. "Nii-chan? What's wrong?"

Syuusuke smiled weakly. "N-Nothing, Yuuta. I'm fine. I… I'm just a little tired. I'm going to sleep, Yuuta."

Yuuta blinked, frowned a little, then nodded slowly. "All right," he said. "Good night, nii-chan. Sleep well."

Syuusuke smiled. "Good night, Yuuta."

* * *

Syuusuke woke up the next morning to loud screaming. He sat up immediately; that voice… it belonged to Yumiko!

Syuusuke bolted out of the bed and was at the window in an instant.

"You can't do this to me!" screamed a blindfolded Yumiko, thrashing against the grip of two large, burly men. "Let me _go_!" Similar men, all dressed in dark blue uniforms, followed with guns and radios.

Syuusuke stood staring in wide-eyed shock for a few moments. These men… they were policemen. They must be taking Yumiko away because of her powers.

A surge of anger welled up inside Syuusuke. They were trying to take Yumiko away! Syuusuke was not about to let that happen.

"Hey, you scumbags!" he shouted through the window before he realized what he was doing. He glared at them all as hard as he could as he screamed, "Leave my sister alone!"

Not a single one of them moved.

"Nii-chan!" cried Yuuta as he clung to Syuusuke's leg. "Nii-chan, what's going on? Why are they trying to take nee-chan away? They can't! They can't take her away!" Yuuta was crying, panicked and confused, and Syuusuke set his lips in a determined line.

"Don't worry, Yuuta," said Syuusuke, gently pushing Yuuta away and aiming himself at the door. "I won't let them."

Syuusuke backed up as far as he could, then ran right at the door, building momentum. This door was the only thing standing between him and his sister, and he couldn't let the door win. If the door won, his sister would be gone forever. Syuusuke would not allow that.

The door broke right off of its hinges, and Syuusuke immediately went to pry the hands off of Yumiko. Yumiko herself helped this process, and soon they were embracing tightly. "Nee-chan!" cried Syuusuke worriedly. "Are you okay?"

Yumiko laughed a little and hugged Syuusuke tightly. "I'm fine, Syuusuke. What about you? You just knocked a door down!"

Syuusuke pulled back and stared into Yumiko's face with tears in his eyes and a ridiculous grin on his face. "They were going to take you away, nee-chan," he said firmly. "I won't let them!"

"N-Nee-chan!" cried Yuuta, running towards them and wrapping his arms around Yumiko. Yuuta's sobs were incoherent, but Yumiko nodded understandingly and lifted him into her arms anyway. "I know, Yuuta," she said soothingly. "But we have to go. These bad men will want to take us all away now, and we can't let them. They're not going to stay stuck like this forever."

Syuusuke nodded grimly. "Let's go, nee-chan."

The Fuji siblings ran as fast and far as they could. They were on the run for as long as two weeks before they were discovered by Yamato Yuudai, Seigaku House's Leader at the time, who took them through the Stranger tunnels to the orphanage.

It wasn't until Yumiko had a chance to properly look at Syuusuke that she realized that his dark gray eyes had turned a bright, startling blue.

* * *

Because when I tried to write the next chapter, this came out instead. A little bit on Fuji's backstory, that was once vague and made detailed while I wrote it. Making it up as I go along is my style. :D

I would like to apologize because I am falling into that old trap: procrastination. This always happens to me. I start a story, it's totally awesome and flowing and then suddenly it just stops. I don't know. Hopefully this won't happen to Strangers. Check out my side fic, Ten Commandments of Hyoutei House (three guesses what it's about)! Well, technically this is the side fic because that was the original idea and, well, this monster was started there. :D

Don't worry, we'll be getting back to the action soon enough. I'm just taking some time to get to know my characters properly. Get a look at their minds and all. Try to portray their voices properly. Gather blackmail. You know, the usual. :D

I like this one. The Fuji siblings' relationship with one another and the protectiveness they have over one another is something that has always intrigued me. Yes, I do believe that if there was a wooden door between Syuusuke and Yumiko, Syuusuke, even at the tender age of seven, would be able to break it down because of that unnaturally strong instinct that tells him he must protect his family at any cost. He would have taken down a titanium door for Yuuta, just to be clear. :D

Review! :D

Love,

Stars of Gold :D

(Yes I do like the :D emoticon very much. What gave it away?)


	23. AN: Site

Hello peoples~!

Heh. This has been dead for a while, I know. Um, well, I have no excuse, but I AM working on the next chapter! I am, really!

You don't believe me. Well, I have proof!

http:/ tenipuri-strangers. bravehost. com/chapter22. html

(please remove the spaces)

Behold! The unfinished chapter of Strangers that you can check out, plus a few other extras. Because I feel like I'm letting you guys down by not updating here more often. When I do finish it, I will post it here, but until then, you can check the progress over there. All the references and drafts and crap are up, too (well, most of them) so that should keep you guys occupied for a while while I get Chapter 22 done. :D

Love,

Stars of Gold


	24. Chapter 22

Rikkai House was dominating. Everyone in the tunnels could hear them, but every other House was silent. They couldn't afford to give themselves away, not now that they knew that the Americans could sense the presence of an illusion. They needed the element of surprise, or they would be overpowered by the physically stronger Americans.

The next tunnel to be attacked was Rokkaku's, then Fudoumine's, then Yamabuki's. There were screams of agony everywhere, and every House still waiting for their turn to fight was shaken up; there were definitely people dying, and it wasn't just on the enemy's part.

Wakashi clenched his fists tightly. So many Strangers had died already. Would Hyoutei suffer the same fate?

Haginosuke put a hand on his shoulder, his eyes silently reassuring Wakashi. _Don't worry_, Wakashi could almost hear him say, _We'll get out of this alive. _

Wakashi nodded back grimly because even if he didn't really believe that they'd all come out of this unscathed, Haginosuke was much more optimistic than he. Haginosuke, at least, deserved to have some hope.

Even if it was false hope.

Then there were footsteps outside the entrance they were guarding, and every head turned to face the opening of the tunnel. Atobe met everyone's eyes, pressed a silent kiss to Jirou's head and faced the approaching platoon of Americans with a hard expression.

Wakashi felt a tingle of _something_ stirring under his skin. Something told him that this... would result in someone's death.

Wakashi suddenly kissed Haginosuke deeply and hugged him as tightly as he could. Haginosuke barely managed not to make a sound, and when Wakashi pulled away, Haginosuke shot him a bewildered expression. Wakashi had never been quite so open with their relationship as their housemates, but this _was_ a war, Haginosuke supposed. Perhaps Wakashi was still afraid of dying.

Haginosuke smiled at him reassuringly, but Wakashi didn't return it because the Americans had come through the veil of Jirou's illusion, and Hyoutei sprang into action.

Ah well. Time enough for that later.

* * *

Slowly, one by one, every tunnel was found and attacked. Every House was soon fighting for their lives.

Well, almost every House.

"Damn it!" growled Takeshi, punching the wall in frustration. "I want to be on the frontlines, damn it!"

"Calm yourself," admonished Tezuka lowly.

"We should be out there fighting!" insisted Takeshi angrily. "We're the strongest House in Kanto, for crying out loud! _We_ should be the ones defending our home!"

"Without our Healer and one of our best fighters?" Fuji challenged, eyes open and icy. "We are here to protect the civilians should the Americans make it through any of the tunnels. The Stranger children past this tunnel have the chance to grow up happily, hearing only stories of the terrible humans that hate us. You would take their safety, their _future_ away to glorify your own name?"

"It's not that!" Takeshi said, exasperated. "It's just... I feel so... so..."

"Helpless," said Eiji softly.

"We all feel that way," said Kawamura gently. "But sometimes, it's not about doing what is best to us, but doing what's best for our people."

Takeshi grunted once more but remained otherwise silent.

* * *

Choutarou fought as hard as he could. Hyoutei would not lose, not this time. They had lost the fight for their house, but this was a fight for their _home_.

Silver hair turned to silver fur within seconds. Everything was happening so fast, Choutarou's body was reacting almost like it was on autopilot. _Wolf, bear, hawk – Taki, be careful!_ Choutarou's hawk form became an elephant mid-flight and fell heavily on Taki's would-be attacker.

"Thanks," he heard Taki say, but there was no time for words. Choutarou whirled around as his instincts screamed _danger!_ and the command to _shift_ came a second too late. The ray had already been released, and Choutarou just froze. He couldn't move, couldn't do anything but stare at the green ray that would end his life. Vaporize him.

Distantly, Choutarou thought he saw a burst of sparkles in his peripheral vision. Immediately his mind focused and forced his body to shift into a mouse. Ryou wasn't back yet, and damned if Choutarou died before he did. The only way either of them were going to go was _together_, and if they weren't then the Grim Reaper could just go screw himself.

Choutarou scurried between his assailant's legs, shifted into a silver leopard and sunk his claws into the man.

Then there really _was_ a burst of sparkles, and Ryou materialized– right in the path of a green ray.

Choutarou shifted back into his Stranger form and screamed a warning – but it was too late. The ray hit Ryou square in the chest and he fell backwards, eyes closed and skin pale.

"NO!"

Choutarou reacted without thinking. He shifted into something, something big and terrifying, and bounded over to Ryou, his teeth and claws teaching those who would stand in his way better.

"No no no no no no no no," Choutarou whispered over and over like a mantra as he slid back into his Stranger form and cradled Ryou's head in his arms. "No no no not Ryou no no no." Tears fell from his eyes, leaving tracks of clean skin amongst a face of dirt and blood. He couldn't be dead. He _couldn't_.

("_Bastards_!" Choutarou would later remember hearing Gakuto scream, voice full of grief and pain and sobs.)

Choutarou clung tightly to Ryou's limp body, animalistically howling in anguish. He didn't even care that an enemy could easily sneak up on him. His mind focused solely on Ryou, Ryou's boneless form that would soon vaporize and leave nothing but memories.

Choutarou cried and buried his face in Ryou's chest.

_Thud-thud,_ heard Choutarou. _Thud-thud, thud-thud, thud-thud._

Ryou... his heart was beating! He was alive! He was alive! He wasn't dead!

"Jirou!" Choutarou shouted desperately, pressing his fingers to Ryou's wrist to check for a pulse. "He's alive! Jirou!"

Ryou was alive.

Choutarou could barely wrap his head around it. He'd seen Ryou go down, seen the ray hit Ryou right in the middle of his chest; and yet, here he was, heart beating strong and body still intact. It was a miracle.

Choutarou hadn't even realized Jirou had made it beside them until the older boy gently prised Choutarou's fingers away from Ryou. Choutarou let Ryou go into Jirou's capable hands and watched tensely as Jirou performed a routine check-up, eyes wet but sharp and focused on his job.

Then Jirou's hands glowed green and Shishido Ryou opened his eyes with a weak groan.


	25. Chapter 23

"Come on, Dan, you and me can do this," Ryou said to the younger boy, trying to reassure him. It was difficult to have been called out to help people who weren't even there, who had never been there in the first place, especially when your home was attacked while you were away. They needed to get back to Tokyo, _fast_– five Strangers could tip the balance in their favor, few though they might seem. Ryou and Dan had to teleport all five of them to Tokyo from _Hokkaido_.

"W-We can do this, desu," Dan said, eyes determined though fear shone through. "For Tokyo, desu."

Ryou smiled and ruffled Dan's hair. "Right, then, kid. Let's get to it."

"You guys ready?" Oishi asked, extending his hand to Ryou as Echizen did the same to Dan. Ryou and Dan completed the circle of Strangers, and immediately Ryou could feel energy pouring into him, rejuvenating him. He let his mind focus on the Courtyard, all the way in Tokyo, and waited for Dan to do the same before disappearing in a shower of silvery sparkles.

* * *

The first thing Ryou saw through a mist of sparkles was a green ray of disintegration heading straight for _his_ Choutarou. He stumbled towards his boyfriend in a hazy panic –he really wasn't in any shape to fight, but Choutarou...!– before remembering his powers and teleporting to where the rest of Hyoutei House was.

Everything happened so fast; Ryou first registered the fatigue, then his vision started blurring, then he heard a shout and saw a silver beast coming towards him. Ryou wanted to smile because Choutarou was _alive_, but then his mind registered a green ray heading right for him– and then he lost consciousness.

* * *

When Ryou woke up, it was to Jirou's shocked face and Choutarou's tear-streaked, worried one.

"What happened?" he asked with a groan as he sat up.

"Y-You were d-dead," whispered Choutarou, a hand pressed to his mouth as he attempted to choke back a sob. "B-But you're alive!" Without warning, Choutarou flung his arms around Ryou's neck and hugged him close.

Ryou raised his eyebrows at Jirou over Choutarou's shoulder. "I was _dead_?" he repeated, incredulous.

Jirou looked relieved, but grim. "You were never dead, Ryou," he said seriously. Too seriously for Jirou. "You simply passed out due to fatigue. Overuse of power."

Ryou frowned. "But I got hit by the death ray thing, didn't I?" he asked, remembering the green ray.

"Y-You did. Clearly. There was no way it could have missed," Jirou replied. "That's what's baffling me."

Ryou looked around to see that Hyoutei House, male and female, had formed a ring around the three of them, protecting them from all harm. Just like musk oxen.

"I have a theory," Oshitari said slowly, glancing back at them, like he'd had an epiphany. "Maybe... Maybe the genetic makeup of Strangers is different enough from that of humans that we aren't affected by the ray."

"W-What?" Taki squeaked, eyes wide.

"Oshitari's right," said Hiyoshi. "It makes sense. The ray hones in on human DNA to destroy it utterly without harming anything else, right?"

"Usu," confirmed Kabaji.

"And we're obviously not human," supplied Gakuto, and Ryou _knew_ that a small smile was growing on his face.

"Too risky a theory," Atobe argued. "No way to prove it without putting lives in danger."

"Aren't I enough proof?" Ryou argued back. "I got hit right in the chest with that death ray and I'm still alive."

"Could have been a fluke," Atobe snapped.

Oshitari sighed, his tail swishing. "Then I guess there's only one thing to do."

Oshitari stepped out of the ring of Hyouteians and stepped right into a bright green ray. "Yuushi, what are you doing?" Gakuto demanded, but Oshitari ignored him. His hands were slipped casually into his pockets and at least a dozen green rays hit him all over– yet he didn't vaporise or disintegrate. Oshitari simply turned back to his friends and grinned smugly. "What did I tell you?" he called to Atobe triumphantly. "They can't hurt us!"

_Their weapons don't work on us,_ Ryou thought, shocked. Then a smile grew on his face. _They can't hurt us!_

Keigo's usual self-satisfied smirk found its way onto his face. "Shishido, run and tell the others about this. Ohtori, go with him," he added like an afterthought. Shishido saluted and vanished in a burst of sparkles, taking Ohtori (still clinging to him) with him.

"Oshitari, Jirou, create an illusion, distract them. It doesn't matter where they fire their death rays now. Taki, arm Hiyoshi and yourself with bows and pick them off from afar. Their rays don't work but they might have other weapons that will. Kabaji–"

Kabaji was already holding what seemed to be a large missile launcher.

Keigo smiled, and he could hear the female Hyoutei House leader giving her girls their own briefing. They were going to win. They were going to win!

"FOR HYOUTEI!" he shouted, and the resounding cries echoed in the tunnels.

* * *

Word spread to each House about the weapons' fatal flaw, and a new wave of courage swept over the Strangers.

"The death rays can't hurt the civilians, Tezuka!" Takeshi said, eyes wide with excitement. "So can we stop being goddamn bodyguards and _fight_?"

"They still have other weapons," Inui pointed out, adjusting his glasses. "This was supposed to be a test run. They'll still have backups in case the ray guns didn't work."

"Rightfully so, since the rays _didn't_ work," Kawamura added.

"But they'd already tested their rays in Hokkaido," Oishi argued. "The extra weapons would only weigh them down."

"That's true. There wasn't a single Stranger in Hokkaido, there never has been," Echizen confirmed. "The Americans would have had no way of knowing that their rays don't work on Strangers."

"Too risky," Tezuka persisted. "No."

Takeshi let out a shout of frustration. "Fine! If you're going to just _sit around_ and do _nothing_, you're welcome to do just that! _I_ am going to _fight_, damn it!" Takeshi pushed the urge to say anything else, anything more scathing down, instead choosing to turn on his heel and storm away towards Fudomine's tunnel.

He'd barely taken three steps before someone stepped forward to join him.

"K-Kaidoh!" Takeshi exclaimed, blinking in surprise.

"This doesn't make us friends," Kaidoh growled, and Takeshi swore he could see a tinge of pink on his face.

"Of course not," Takeshi agreed because he didn't want to fight with his only ally.

Kunimitsu watched them walk away with the urge to huff in annoyance. "Kikumaru, Kawamura, go with them," he ordered, nodding at the two retreating figures. "Make sure they don' get killed."

Kawamura nodded bravely, like a man taking on a serious mission; but Kikumaru's eyes lit up, and Kunimitsu just _knew_ he'd been dying to go after the two boys. "We'll be good and take care of them, nya!" he promised, grinning and pressing a kiss to Oishi's cheek before shifting into a furry pink leopard and bounding after Momoshiro and Kaidoh.

"A-Ah, how am I going to catch up to them now?"

Syuusuke tapped Kawamura's shoulder. "Here, Taka-san," he said, handing Kawamura a large club.

"Ah, thank you, Fu– MOERUZE, BURNING! I WILL NOT LOSE TO A MERE LEOPARD! KORA-KORA-KORA-KORAAA!" Kawamura dashed off, catching up to the others and overtaking them easily.

"Taka-san, be careful!" Oishi yelled after him, worried as always. "I hope they'll be alright... Maybe I should go with them...?"

"They'll be fine," Inui reassured him. "Tezuka left you here because we may need a Healer if the Americans get through."

"And you two are already tired enough," Syuusuke added. "No need for you and Echizen to wear yourselves out entirely."

Kunimitsu refrained from voicing his rather rude opinion of the two reading his thoughts, but it was a near thing.

"Ah, Mitsu's sulking again."

"Hush, Syuusuke."

* * *

Rikkai House had been doing well even before the news of their immunity to the rays came by. They were ruthless, showing no mercy whatsoever as was their way. 'Mura was unleashing a dozen different attacks every second, and Sanada was lethal with his sword.

Of course, Akaya was doing really well himself, eyes red and claws stained with blood. It seemed too good to be true, really.

Then there was an ear-piercing screech of pain and Akaya whirled about in panic.

Yagyuu had been pierced in the chest with a dagger.

"Yagyuu!" shouted 'Mura over the racket, fighting to get to his side. "YAGYUU!"

Niou was already at his side, silver rattail streaked with blood. He cradled his lover in his arms gently, holding him tight and whispering reassurances. Yagyuu's form flickered, then faded away to reveal Niou.

"N-Niou?" Jackal exclaimed, doing his best to keep the enemies at bay. Akaya's eyes slid over to who he now knew was Yagyuu dressed as Niou, and couldn't believe Yagyuu's shaking shoulders as he cried.

Yagyuu, perfect gentleman, always strong and aloof... crying.

"Hang on, Masaharu, hang on," he was whispering, but Niou couldn't seem to hear him. His eyes were glassy, unnervingly so, and even when Yukimura knelt next to him and held a glowing green hand over the wound, Niou didn't seem to respond.

"It's not working," Niou stated weakly, coughing up blood. "I know... I'm going to die."

"No, you're not," Yagyuu told him firmly, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than Niou. "You'll live. You'll live and do stupid things and make us laugh and- and–" His words tapered off into sobs.

"Shh," Niou soothed his lover, smiling weakly. "We... We had a good run, didn't we, with Rikkai House?"

"Yeah, we did," Yukimura replied lowly, grimly.

"Thanks, Yukimura-buchou, for... for everything," Niou said, eyes slowly closing. "Hiroshi... I love you."

"I love you too," Yagyuu whispered.

"D-Don't forget... that I owe... Bunta..."

And then, just like that, with an incomplete sentence, Niou slipped away, never to speak again.

Akaya would never hear him laugh again. Would never again help him play pranks on Sanada, never again get to punch him for being an asshole.

Something inside him broke, and Akaya let out a roar of anguish as his body suddenly started changing, his skin turning black and his bones shifting into the form of a heavier, more dangerous being.

Akaya didn't –_couldn't_– register of any of that. All he could think of was Niou's smile, Niou's laugh, even Niou's stupid smug smirk that irritated everyone.

That _used to_ irritate everyone. Niou was dead.

Akaya roared again, this time as a warning.

_Those bastards will pay for what they have done!_

* * *

DISCLAIMER: Don't own Prince of Tennis, blah blah blah blah blahhh...

I WILL FINISH THIS. I WILL.

I promise I will.

(And I'm sorry for killing Niou -hides-)

_Stars of Gold_


End file.
